Licensing, insurance and the law
You are under 18 and DMV has just issued your instruction permit. When can you start using it to practice driving?
- Once you start behind-the-wheel training with an instructor, who validates the permit. Correct answer
- Right away, as long as a licensed driver who is at least 25 rides with you.
- Only after you have held the permit for six months.
Why
For a minor, a newly issued permit is not ready to use the day you get it. The handbook tells applicants under 18 to wait until they begin behind-the-wheel driver training with an instructor, and that instructor is the one who validates the permit. Having a licensed adult of 25 or older beside you is a real requirement, but it governs the practice hours you log once the permit is valid; it does not replace the validation. Six months is also a real number from the same page, measured from a different point: a minor has to hold a permit for at least six months, or turn 18, before scheduling the behind-the-wheel drive test. Instructors are required to carry an instructor's ID card, and the handbook encourages you to ask to see it.
Where this comes from
California Driver's Handbook, June 2025 edition. The correct answer is Once you start behind-the-wheel training with an instructor, who validates the permit.
The rule behind this one
License, points and insurance in California goes through the whole topic, with the page of the California Driver's Handbook behind every rule.
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