Seeing your child become a teenager and start exploring new experiences and taking on new life skills can be exhilarating and terrifying at the same time. This is particularly true of driving --a learner’s permit is a big moment for a teenager, and a driver’s license even more so. But teens are a risky demographic when it comes to driving, and the thought of your child getting into a terrible accident is something no parent wants to contemplate. So are you ready for your teen to start driving?
State Regulations for Teen Drivers in California
First, let’s look at the most important aspect of teen driving first: the law.
According to California law, the first step toward getting a driver’s license is taking a driver’s education course. They must complete at least 30 hours of curriculum that includes accident avoidance, traffic laws, road safety, and more. Some courses can be taken in person or online.
The next step is driver training, which means actually getting behind the wheel with an instructor. Regulations require six hours behind the wheel across three separate days, while accompanied by a licensed school and instructor. Completing this training allows them to apply for an instruction permit, provided they’re over the age of 15 1/2. This step involves completing an application, having fingerprints and photo taken, as well as paying an application fee. They must then pass an instruction test, which can be retaken every seven days if they don’t pass the first time.
An instruction permit allows teens to drive under restricted circumstances: at certain times of day, with a licensed driver in the car.
At 16, teenagers can apply for their driver’s license, once all other education and training has been completed. They must also have logged 50 hours of supervised driving practice. They can then make an appointment at the California DMV to take a driver knowledge test and the in-car driving test. If these tests are passed, the teenager receives a provisional driver’s license until they turn 18, at which point they have no restrictions on their license.
Typical Concerns for Parents
Of course, every parent worries about their teenager getting in a collision and being seriously injured. There are also lesser worries such as totaled vehicles, expensive tickets, and other anxieties. It’s worth keeping in mind that your teenager will have their own anxieties about learning to drive, and you can do a lot to alleviate both your fears by working with them.
One of the best and easiest ways to do this is to provide a good example when you’re behind the wheel -- no drinking, texting, or driving recklessly. You might also show them how to take care of some maintenance issues themselves, such as flat tires and oil changes. Talk to your child’s driving instructor and find out which areas might need more practice, so you can help your teen master these areas before they take their first driving test.
Finally, though it might be difficult for both of you to accept, not every teenager is created equal, and some might not be ready for driving at the same time as their friends or siblings. Safety has to come first.
How to Know If Your Teen Is Ready
So how do you know if your teen is really ready for the responsibility of driving? There will always be a level of uncertainty involved, but you can help by placing limitations on when and how far they can drive, minimizing distractions by limiting how many passengers they can have in the car, and talking to them about traffic safety. You might also draw up a parent-teen driving contract, which will firmly establish certain rules about driving and outline consequences for reckless driving or traffic violations (loss of privileges, etc.)
How to Prepare Financially
Unfortunately, as a parent, you’ll also have to prepare for the money involved in having a teen driver. First, there’s the question of whether or not you’ll buy them a car, contribute toward them buying a car, or require them to earn it themselves. There’s also the question of insurance, which is where the bad news comes in: teenage drivers are by far the most expensive demographic to insure.
Because young drivers are a particularly risky demographic (teens, historically speaking, tend to be reckless), they pay a lot more for insurance. Ross Martin at The Zebra has some numbers on this: drivers between the ages of 16 and 25 pay more than three times the national average -- about $4,989 a year if they’re on their own policy. To help financially survive your child’s teenage driving years, you might consider comparing quotes to see which companies offer the best cheap car insurance in California for teens. (Wawanesa, GEICO, and USAA are some of the cheaper options in California.) You might also consider putting them on your policy, which can be significantly cheaper.
