Texas teen driver requirements: permits, hours, and restrictions

Texas checks a teenager's school attendance before it checks their driving. Before the Department of Public Safety will issue a learner license it wants a Verification of Enrollment and Attendance form signed by the school — and that form goes stale in 30 days. Around that gate sits a two-phase Graduated Driver License program: six months on a learner license with a licensed adult of 21 or older in the seat beside you, 30 hours of practice with 10 of them after dark, a two-hour distracted-driving video, and then a provisional card that runs to your 18th birthday with a curfew and a passenger limit attached. This is written for the 15-year-old collecting the paperwork and for the parent who signs it under oath.

Practice the Texas written test

The classroom opens at 14; the license does not

You may start the classroom phase of a driver education course at 14, but you cannot apply for a learner license until you are at least 15. That two-step timing is worth planning around, because starting the coursework the summer you turn 14 means the paperwork is finished on the day you become eligible rather than months after.

Texas gives four ways to take it: classroom instruction at a certified driving school, an online course through a certified school, a parent-taught program run by a parent or guardian who holds a valid unexpired Texas driver license, or driver education offered by some public schools. The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, not DPS, regulates these providers, and its site is where you check that a school is actually certified.

The classroom part comes in two shapes, and the choice decides how soon you drive. The concurrent method takes the first 6 hours of classroom instruction, then the written exam, then the permit — and you finish the remaining 18 hours while you are already practicing. The block method puts all 24 hours of classroom first, then the exam, then the permit. Concurrent gets a beginner behind the wheel sooner; block gets the theory over with in one stretch.

The VOE: Texas looks at your attendance record first

Anyone under 18 applying for a first Texas license, learner license or provisional license has to prove they are in school and going to it. The instrument is the Verification of Enrollment and Attendance form — the VOE — issued and signed by the school. It certifies enrollment in a public, private or home school with at least 90 percent attendance in the past semester, and a stamped or computer-generated signature from a school official is acceptable. A high school diploma or a GED substitutes for the whole thing.

The expiry is the part families get wrong. A VOE is valid for 30 days from issuance — stretched to 90 days when it is issued between June and August. Collect one in April for an appointment you booked in June and you will be turned away at the counter holding a dead form. Because Texas appointments are scheduled well ahead, the right order is to lock the appointment first and then ask the school office for the VOE inside the month before it.

There are two ways out if the school cannot produce one. If you apply during the summer and are still enrolled, your last report card works, provided it shows your name, your attendance record and your grades. And if you are studying for the high school equivalency exam instead, proof of active enrollment in a preparation program for the last 45 days is accepted in its place.

Phase One: the learner license and the adult beside you

A Texas learner license is issued from 15 up to but not including 18, costs $16, and expires on your 18th birthday no matter when it was issued. It must be held at least six months before you are eligible for a provisional license — and if your license is suspended at any point in those six months, the period is extended by the number of days of the suspension, because the license was not valid during them.

Whoever supervises has a job description, not just an age. The licensed driver must be at least 21, must have at least one year of driving experience, must occupy the seat beside the driver, and cannot be intoxicated, asleep, or engaged in any activity that prevents them observing and responding to what the learner is doing. That is exactly what the letter B on a Texas card means, and a learner license also carries a total ban on wireless communication devices — hands-free included — except in an emergency.

Moving in from another state does not shorten the wait. An applicant aged 15 to 17 who presents a valid out-of-state instruction permit is issued a Texas learner license and serves the six months here from the date of issuance, whatever they already held elsewhere. The only alternative is to wait until 18, when the holding period stops applying.

What to bring to the learner license appointment

Book the appointment through the DPS scheduler, then arrive with a parent or legal guardian, or with the notarized application they signed, or with evidence that parental authorization is waived — emancipation, for instance. The specialist wants the completed application, proof of US citizenship or lawful presence, proof of Texas residency, proof of identity, and your Social Security number, which is verified electronically rather than by producing the card.

Then the school paperwork: the Texas Driver Education Certificate showing you finished the classroom hours — DE-964 or DEE-964 from a certified driving school or an approved parent-taught program, or DE-964E from a public school — plus the VOE or your diploma. You also show evidence of passing the knowledge exam; if you did not take it during the classroom phase, you take it at the office instead. Finally, thumbprints and a signature, a photograph, the fee, and the vision exam.

You walk out with a temporary permit that lets you start practicing immediately. Check the printed details before you leave the counter and flag any mistake while the specialist still has your file open; the plastic card usually follows in the mail within two to three weeks and can be tracked on the DPS mailing status page.

Thirty hours, ten of them at night

The practice requirement is 30 hours behind the wheel, of which at least 10 must be at night, with a licensed driver aged 21 or older in the vehicle the whole time. Beside it sits the behind-the-wheel portion of driver education, which is a different 14 hours: 7 hours observing from the passenger seat while the instructor demonstrates points of instruction, and 7 hours driving to demonstrate that you learned them. DPS labels both halves "in-car observation" on its provisional-license page.

Thirty is a low bar next to what several other states demand, and it is worth reading as a floor rather than a target. The ten night hours are the ones that quietly decide the schedule: in a Texas June the sun is still up past 8 p.m., so a family that leaves night driving until the last month of the six is doing it on school nights in short bursts. Starting the night hours in the first month costs nothing and removes the whole problem.

The hardship route: a Minor Restricted Driver License at 15

Texas has a door most states do not. A Minor Restricted Driver License, commonly called a hardship license, can be issued to an applicant who is at least 15 and under 16 where a genuine necessity to drive has been established. It is the only route that waives the six-month learner holding period — a hardship applicant meets every other licensing requirement, including passing driver education in both its classroom and behind-the-wheel phases plus the vision, knowledge and driving exams.

The application is form DL-77 and it is not something a minor files alone. An authorized adult executes it on the minor's behalf, both of them sign it, and it is presented in person at a driver license office. Only a parent, guardian or person with custody may apply for a minor; where there is none, an employer or a county judge may. DPS may ask for supporting documentation or open an investigation to confirm what the application says.

The qualifying grounds are narrow: an illness, disability or death in the family; enrollment in a vocational education program that requires a license to take part; or a court order requiring the license to be issued. It costs $6 and it expires on the applicant's next birthday, which is what makes it a bridge rather than a shortcut — but the months held on one count toward the six-month requirement for a provisional license, so the time is not lost.

Impact Texas Teen Drivers: two hours, ninety days of shelf life

Every teenager who will take a driving skills test has to watch Impact Texas Teen Drivers first. It is a two-hour video built around real accounts of what distracted driving costs, and it is required of 15-to-17-year-olds taking an approved parent-taught or minor driver education course.

The order matters. It has to be completed after the behind-the-wheel requirements of driver education and before the driving test, and the certificate has to be dated within 90 days of that test. Print it and take it with you: you cannot be tested without it, at a DPS office or at a driver education school. It does not replace the distracted-driving module that already sits inside the 24-hour teen course.

The driving test, and the route that skips the office entirely

If you test at a driver license office, schedule the appointment online choosing "Class C" under Road Skills Test, and turn up with proof of current registration and insurance for the vehicle you will drive, an unexpired Impact Texas Teen Driver certificate, and time for biometrics, a photograph, the fee and the vision exam.

If you test at a driver education school instead, the results reach DPS in a sealed envelope that you hand over when you apply. And if that school takes part in the TPST Submission Portal, the packet is submitted online, DPS processes it virtually, and — if approved — you pay through the Texas by Texas website and receive a temporary permit inside that same online transaction. You never visit a driver license office at all.

That is the single biggest time-saver in the Texas teen process, and it is decided months earlier by which school you enrolled in. To test at a school at 16 or older you need a valid DE-964 or DEE-964 for a minors driver education course, a learner license held for at least six months, and the ITTD certificate dated within 90 days. Fees charged by a school for the test are not regulated by DPS, so ask what they are before you sign up.

Phase Two: one passenger, and a five-hour window you cannot drive in

A provisional license is issued from 16, is marked PROVISIONAL on the front, and expires on the holder's 18th birthday. That is the detail that separates Texas from states running a fixed twelve-month restriction period: the limits below last until you turn 18, so a 16-year-old serves nearly two years of them and someone licensed at 17 and a half serves six months.

There are three of them. You may not drive with more than one passenger under the age of 21 who is not a family member — family members do not count against the limit at all, so a car with three younger siblings is legal and a car with two classmates is not. You may not drive between midnight and 5:00 a.m. And you may not use a wireless communication device, hands-free included, except in an emergency — a blanket rule for every Texas driver under 18 rather than a provisional-only one.

The curfew is the one worth reading word for word, because Texas writes the exceptions into the rule itself. Driving between midnight and 5 a.m. is allowed when it is necessary for the driver to work, to attend or take part in a school-related activity, or because of a medical emergency. Those three purposes are the whole list. A ride home from a friend's house is not a school-related activity, and the exception attaches to the trip's purpose rather than to a permission slip you carry.

What the parent's oath actually is

If the applicant is under 18, the application must be signed under oath by the parent or guardian with custody. Where there is no guardian, an employer or a county judge may sign instead. Both the minor and the cosigner also have to acknowledge receiving information about distracted driving and about the zero-tolerance law before the application goes through.

The signature carries a power worth knowing about in advance: the person who signs may ask DPS to cancel the license at any time before the minor's 18th birthday. The request has to be in writing and sworn before an officer authorized to administer oaths, and it does not need the teenager's agreement or a court. It is the plainest expression of what the oath means — the adult who vouched for the license can withdraw it.

The ways a Texas teen license goes away

Zero tolerance is the big one. A minor under 21 may not purchase, attempt to purchase, consume or possess an alcoholic beverage, and if any detectable amount of alcohol is in their system while they operate a motor vehicle — or a watercraft — in a public place, that is the criminal offense of Driving Under the Influence of Alcohol by a Minor. There is no threshold to argue about; detectable is the standard.

Tobacco is the one nobody expects. A person under 18 convicted of possessing, purchasing, consuming or receiving cigarettes or tobacco products must attend a tobacco awareness program approved by the Texas Department of State Health Services, and failing to complete it within 90 days can suspend their driver license — or their driving privilege, if they do not hold one yet.

A suspension during Phase One does not only cost you the days it lasts — it pushes the six-month learner requirement out by exactly that many days, because your license was invalid throughout. That is the quiet reason a suspension at 15 can delay a provisional license well past the birthday everyone had marked on the calendar.

Turning 18 in the middle of it

Every card in this program is pegged to the same date. A learner license expires on your 18th birthday whenever it was issued, a provisional license expires there too, and the Phase Two restrictions end with it — no application, no fee, no replacement card. Turning 18 also removes the six-month holding requirement outright, which is why a 17-and-a-half-year-old sometimes finishes later than a classmate who simply waited.

What changes rather than disappears is driver education. From 18 to 24 the requirement becomes the six-hour adult course instead of the 24-hour teen one, and the video becomes Impact Texas Adult Drivers, an hour rather than two. From 25 there is no course requirement at all. One small mercy for anyone close to the line: a provisional holder who will be 18 within 30 days becomes eligible to renew online, so the last step of the teen process can be done from a phone.

Texas licensing — frequently asked questions

How many hours of driving practice does Texas require?

Thirty hours behind the wheel with at least 10 of them at night, always with a licensed driver aged 21 or older in the vehicle. Separately, the behind-the-wheel part of driver education is 14 hours with an instructor — 7 hours observing from the passenger seat and 7 hours driving. The 30 and the 14 do not count toward each other.

How old do you have to be to get a learner license in Texas?

At least 15 and under 18. You need the classroom hours of driver education already done — 6 hours under the concurrent method or all 24 under the block method — plus a VOE form or a diploma, and a parent or guardian's signature. You may begin the classroom coursework at 14, but not apply.

Can a 16-year-old drive friends in Texas?

One at a time. A provisional driver may not carry more than one passenger under 21 who is not a family member, so a single classmate is fine and two are not. Family members are outside the count entirely — siblings and cousins do not use up the slot. The limit runs until the driver's 18th birthday, not for a fixed twelve months.

What is the Texas teen driving curfew?

Midnight to 5:00 a.m., for provisional drivers until they turn 18. Texas writes three exceptions into the rule itself: driving that is necessary for work, to attend or take part in a school-related activity, or because of a medical emergency. Nothing else qualifies, and the exception attaches to the purpose of the trip.

What is a VOE form and how long is it good for?

A Verification of Enrollment and Attendance form, signed by your school, certifying enrollment with at least 90 percent attendance in the past semester. It is valid for 30 days from issuance, or 90 days when issued between June and August. A diploma or GED replaces it, and in summer your last report card can stand in if it shows your name, attendance and grades.

Can you get a driver license at 15 in Texas?

Only through a Minor Restricted Driver License — the hardship route — and only where a real necessity to drive is established: illness, disability or death in the family, a vocational program that requires a license, or a court order. It lets you be licensed at 15 without first holding a learner license for six months, but the six months still runs — on the hardship license itself — before a provisional license can be issued. It costs $6 and expires on your next birthday, and form DL-77 is filed in person by an authorized adult.

How long do you have to hold a learner license in Texas?

Six months, and a suspension inside that period pushes the date out by however many days it lasted. Moving to Texas with an out-of-state permit does not shorten it — you are issued a Texas learner license and start the six months here. Turning 18 removes the requirement instead.

Official sources

Checked against official state sources on July 28, 2026.

Texas Department of Public Safety — the official Texas licensing site