Alabama teen driving laws: permits, curfew, and passenger rules

Alabama gives its teen-driver law two different act numbers

If you go looking for the law by name you will find two of them, and both are real. ALEA's graduated-license page is headed "Synopsis of Graduated Driver License Act #2010-735, effective July 2010". The back page of the Alabama Driver Manual heads the same material "GDL (Graduated Drivers License) — Act #02-408, 2010 Amendments Effective 7/1/2010", and the manual's licensing chapter says the graduated license law itself became effective October 1, 2002. Read together they describe one scheme: an act passed in 2002 and amended in 2010, with the 2010 changes flagged in the manual as "New for 2010" beside the passenger cap and the handheld ban.

The codified version, the one that governs, is § 32-6-7.2 of the Code of Alabama, and it names the stages itself: Stage I is a learner's permit, Stage II is a regular license with restrictions based on age and date of issuance, and Stage III is an unrestricted license. When this guide says the law says something, that is the section it means. When it says ALEA's page says something, that is the synopsis.

Four groups sit outside the scheme entirely, and here is the first place the two documents part company. ALEA's page lists the exemptions as anyone 18 or older; anyone 17 or older who has held a valid driver license for six months or longer; anyone 16 or older "who is married and considered the head of household"; and anyone legally relieved of minority status. The statute's own exemption subsection, § 32-6-7.2(g), carries three rather than four — anyone 18 or over, anyone legally relieved of minority, and the married-or-head-of-household case, with the seventeen-year-old handled elsewhere, in subsection (f). And it reads that third one differently: "Any resident of this state age 16 years and over who is married or who is the head of a household." The manual's summary also reads "married or the head of household". Two documents out of three say or, and one of those two is the law — but the safe way to use that is not to assume you are exempt. If your sixteen-year-old is married or heads a household, take the question to an ALEA examiner and get the exemption confirmed before anyone drives unsupervised on the strength of it.

At fifteen, the passenger seat is where the whole restriction lives

Stage I opens at 15. The manual describes it as a restricted Learner License obtained "for the purpose of learning to safely and effectively operate a motor vehicle", and its examination is drawn from the Alabama Driver Manual and nothing outside it. Pass it and your teenager is issued a Class D card carrying a "Y" restriction. The permit is valid for four years and, the manual adds, the fifteen-year-old version can be renewed once.

Who may occupy the passenger seat is the whole substance of that restriction. At 15, driving is permitted only in the company of someone 21 years of age or older who is duly licensed in Alabama, or of a licensed or certified driving instructor, in the seat alongside. The statute at § 32-6-8(b) frames the same rule slightly more broadly, allowing a parent or legal guardian, a person 21 or over duly licensed in this state, or a licensed or certified driving instructor. The manual's back-page summary matches the statute. ALEA's documents then say the requirement relaxes on the sixteenth birthday — both the manual and the driver license information page describe the "Y" restriction from that point as needing only "a licensed driver occupying the seat beside the driver", with no age attached. Nothing in § 32-6-8 relaxes anything on that birthday: subsection (a), which governs learners of 16 and over, still asks for "a licensed driver who is at least 21 years of age". Treat the age-free wording as the agency's practice and the statute's as the one to plan around.

There is a second learner license at 16, and it exists for a narrow reason. Section 32-6-8(a) and the manual both describe it as available to a person 16 or older who, "except for his or her lack of instruction in operating a motor vehicle, would otherwise be qualified to obtain a driver's license" — in other words, an older beginner who has everything but the driving. Its "Y" restriction is where ALEA's documents and the statute come apart. The manual and the driver license information page both give the milder form, "a licensed driver occupying the seat beside the driver", with no age on it; § 32-6-8(a) itself says the holder "shall be accompanied by a licensed driver who is at least 21 years of age and actually occupying a seat beside the driver". Plan against the statute and put someone 21 or older in that seat, whatever the restriction code on the card implies. The license is valid for four years either way. Either learner license can be suspended or revoked in the same manner and for the same causes as a driver license, and additionally for violating the terms on which it was issued.

One document follows every fifteen-year-old to the counter and is easy to overlook until it stops the visit. The fee page will not take a photocopy of the birth certificate — it says so in capitals — and it wants the certified original, out of the Bureau of Vital Statistics and nowhere else. The manual ties that to Title 36-6-8(b). On top of that, any applicant under 19 owes proof of school status: the manual asks for a current Student Enrollment/Exclusion Form, the DL-1-93, signed by authorized school personnel, while the fee page will take a certificate of graduation or a GED certificate instead and limits the requirement to first-time applicants. Both exist because Act 93-368 makes a license contingent on finishing secondary school or still being in it.

Fifty hours on a form, or a certificate instead of them

Alabama asks for documented practice before Stage II, and it accepts two very different kinds of proof. Section 32-6-7.2(b)(2) requires either a verification form provided by the agency certifying that the applicant "has completed a minimum of 50 hours of behind-the-wheel driving practice", or a certificate of completion from the State Department of Education showing the applicant passed an SDE-approved driver education course. ALEA's page describes the same fork in the same terms.

Who is allowed to sign the log is narrower in the statute than on the web page, and this is the second divergence worth marking. ALEA's page says the verification form may be signed by "a parent, grandparent, legal guardian or certified driving instructor". The statute says it may be signed by "a parent, legal guardian, a grandparent with the consent of a parent or legal guardian, or a licensed or certified driving instructor". A grandparent is on both lists — but the law attaches a condition to that signature that the synopsis leaves off. If a grandparent is going to sign, get the parent's or guardian's consent squared away first; it costs nothing and it is what the statute asks for.

There is a proviso in the statute that families misread in the other direction. Section 32-6-7.2(b)(2) closes with the sentence: "This subdivision shall not be construed to require a course sanctioned by the State Department of Education to include the 50-hour requirement for behind-the-wheel driving practice." Driver education is an alternative to the fifty hours, not a container for them — an approved course does not have to log fifty hours to satisfy the requirement. Whether that makes the course the faster route depends entirely on the course; what it means legally is that you are not owed fifty documented hours by the school.

Separately from the practice log, a sixteen-year-old applicant owes a consent form. Section 32-6-7.2(b)(1) requires a verification form signed by a parent or legal guardian, or a grandparent with the consent of a parent or legal guardian, "consenting to the licensure of the applicant". ALEA's page states the same requirement as permission from a parent, grandparent or legal guardian both to receive the Stage II license and to drive without supervision. That is a separate signature from the fifty-hour form even when the same adult signs both.

Driver education at school can replace more of the exam than the agency's page suggests

Alabama runs a third-party testing arrangement through high schools, and its scope depends on which document you read. Section 32-6-3(b)(1) says that in lieu of examination by the department "for the written, oral, vision, and driving portion of the examination", an applicant currently enrolled or beginning enrollment in a high school drivers' education class may submit proof of having passed those portions when given by a certified driver education instructor at a public high school approved by the State Department of Education and trained as a third party testing agent, or by a private high school instructor certified, approved and trained by the department for the same role. ALEA's private high school program page describes the arrangement more narrowly, saying Act No. 2012-501 "allows private high school driver education teachers to be a designated third-party testing agent … to administer the driver portion of the licensing exam". Plan around the narrower description and ask the school which portions it is actually authorized to give.

The program's shape is published in some detail. A private high school driver and traffic safety education course requires a minimum of 70 clock hours or one semester, is offered as an elective primarily to tenth-grade students who are fifteen or older and eligible for an Alabama learner license, and splits into a classroom phase and a behind-the-wheel phase. The classroom minimum is 30 hours. Behind-the-wheel has no required hour count at all — ALEA says "no specific number of hours are required" and recommends allowing approximately six hours per student for planning purposes. Simulation and multi-vehicle driving range experiences are optional phases, and ALEA recommends completing at least one before the on-street phase.

One provision quietly solves a chicken-and-egg problem for families whose teenager has no permit yet. ALEA's page says a student enrolled in a Driver and Safety Education course approved by the Director of Public Safety "may legally drive on the streets and highways of Alabama without a learner license if the student is driving a driver education automobile with a certified driver education instructor during the regular school day". The conditions are all four at once — approved course, driver education automobile, certified driver education instructor, regular school day — and outside them the permit rules apply as normal. The same page sets class-size guidance of no more than 15 students per class per semester on a six- or seven-period day, or 12 on a block schedule, and requires every occupant of the driver education vehicle to comply with restraint laws.

Midnight to six, and the seventh exception the agency page leaves out

Stage II opens at 16, and the night restriction is the one most families plan around. A Stage II holder may not drive between midnight and 6 a.m. unless an exception applies. ALEA's page lists five: accompanied by a parent or legal guardian; accompanied by a licensed driver 21 or older with the parent's or legal guardian's consent; going to or from a school- or religious-organization-sponsored event; going to or from a place of employment; or driving for a medical, fire or law-enforcement-related emergency. The manual's back-page summary splits the school event and the religious event into separate bullets, so counted the manual's way there are six.

The statute lists seven, lettered a through g. Six of them are the manual's six, and the difference between five and six is only bookkeeping — whether the school event and the religious event are one bullet or two. The seventh is not bookkeeping. Subsection (c)(1)g reads: "The licensee is driving to or from a place where the licensee participates in hunting or fishing activities. In order for this particular exception to apply, the licensee must have in his or her immediate possession a valid hunting or fishing license for the activity." Neither ALEA's synopsis nor the manual's summary mentions it. If your teenager fishes before dawn, the exception exists in law and the license has to be in their pocket, not at home in a drawer.

One exception is worded more loosely in the statute than on the page, and here the safer reading is ALEA's. The statute's paragraph b reads "accompanied by a person who is a licensed driver and is at least 21 years of age or the consent of a parent or legal guardian of the driver is given" — a disjunction that could be read as making the adult passenger and the parental consent alternatives to each other. ALEA's page reads it as a conjunction: a licensed driver 21 or older, with the parent's or legal guardian's consent. Follow ALEA's stricter version. Getting a parent's consent for a late drive costs nothing, and it is the reading an officer at 1 a.m. is most likely to be working from.

One passenger — and the argument is over who is not a passenger

The passenger cap is the restriction most likely to be broken accidentally, because the number is small and the exclusions are not obvious. ALEA's page states it as: must not have more than one passenger in the vehicle other than parents, legal guardians or family members. The manual's summary adds a word the page does not — "may not have more than 1 nonfamily passenger other than the parent, guardian or supervising licensed driver at least 21 years of age" — and flags the whole rule as "New for 2010, reduced from four".

The statute settles the wording. Section 32-6-7.2(c)(2) prohibits driving "if there is more than one passenger in the vehicle not including the parents, legal guardians of the licensee, accompanying family members, or a licensed driver who is at least 21 years of age". So four categories do not count against the cap, and the fourth — an accompanying licensed driver 21 or older — is missing from ALEA's synopsis. That matters in a practical way: an older sibling's friend who is 22 and licensed does not eat the one slot, but a 20-year-old cousin's friend does. The conservative reading, and the one to teach a new driver, is that anyone in the car who is not family and not a licensed adult of 21 counts, and there is room for exactly one of them.

The handheld rule is the shortest of the three and also the one whose wording differs most. ALEA's page says a Stage II holder "must not use any handheld communication devices while driving". The statute prohibits driving "while operating any handheld communication device that is nonessential to the functioning of the vehicle". That qualifier is the whole difference between a blanket ban and a ban with an edge to argue about, and no family should want to argue it at the roadside. Teach the flat rule: the phone is down and out of the hand for the entire Stage II period. Note as well that Alabama's separate hands-free law, effective June 2024, applies to every driver regardless of age, with a first conviction at $50 and 1 point.

Breaking a Stage II rule has a price list, and the synopsis omits it

This is the sharpest disagreement in the whole subject, and it runs in the direction that hurts. ALEA's graduated-license page tells parents that violations "are considered traffic violations, but the licensees will not be subject to any criminal penalties or court costs", that "no points will be assessed for violation of the above restrictions", and that no citation is issued unless the driver was stopped for a separate violation and cited for that. The consequence it names is administrative: the restrictive period is extended by six months or until the licensee reaches 18. The manual's back-page summary says the same.

Section 32-6-7.2(h) says otherwise, and it is the law. Even inside the statute the two halves sit oddly together: subsection (d) says a violation of the Stage II conditions "shall not result in a suspension of the person's driver's license, but shall extend the time period for six months" — which is very nearly ALEA's sentence, and is where the synopsis gets it from — while subsection (h) attaches a separate set of penalties on top. What (h) provides is that a person who drives in violation of the Stage II conditions "shall be guilty of a traffic violation and shall be subject to the following penalties and court costs": for a first offense, required attendance at defensive driving school; for a second or subsequent offense, suspension of the Stage II privileges and reversion to a Stage I learner's permit for six months before becoming eligible to reapply for Stage II; a fine of not less than $150 and not exceeding $350, plus court costs; and a conviction "entered on the driving record … as a two-point violation". Two of those four are things ALEA's synopsis flatly denies — the fine with its court costs, and the points. The other two it simply never mentions: the words "defensive driving school" appear nowhere on the synopsis or in the manual, and the only suspension the synopsis discusses is the separate 60-day one further down the page.

Parents are named in the statute too, and this is the sentence to read twice. Section 32-6-7.2(h)(2): "Upon a second or subsequent offense, a parent or legal guardian who knowingly allows his or her child or ward with a Stage I or Stage II license to drive a motor vehicle in violation of the applicable restrictions of the license may be subject to a fine of not less than one hundred fifty dollars ($150) and not exceeding three hundred fifty dollars ($350), plus court costs." The exposure attaches to knowingly allowing it, and it reaches Stage I as well as Stage II. Whatever ALEA's page says about court costs, plan the household rules against this paragraph.

The 60-day suspension trigger has a qualifier both summaries drop. ALEA's page says a conviction for a second moving traffic violation — or for failure to give information, render aid, racing, fleeing or attempting to elude a law enforcement officer, reckless driving, illegal passing, driving on the wrong side of the road, or any other offense where four or more points are assessed — automatically suspends the license for 60 days. Section 32-6-7.2(e) adds two things: the suspension applies "unless the Alabama Rules of the Road provide a more serious penalty", and the restricted period is separately extended by six months from the date the person would otherwise have become unrestricted, or until age 18. So the 60 days is a floor, not a ceiling, and it arrives with an extension attached. The manual states the same trigger from the other side, listing among the causes for suspension of any Alabama license "4 or more points accrued on driving record or 2 or more moving traffic violations on a Graduated Driver License".

Seventeen is a date; Stage III is a check ALEA has to run first

ALEA's page describes Stage III simply: you must be 17 or older, and a seventeen-year-old must have held a Stage II license for at least six months before applying. Anyone 18 or older may apply immediately, with a passing score on the road skills exam still required. The fee is $31.25 for someone who presents a Stage II license and receives a restriction-free duplicate, and $36.25 for someone who never obtained a Stage II before turning 18 — which is the closest thing Alabama has to a discount for climbing the ladder in order.

The statute adds a condition that is not a formality. Section 32-6-7.2(f) says a seventeen-year-old resident's license is deemed a Stage III unrestricted license "if the license has been issued for a period of six months or longer and the Department of Public Safety verifies that the license holder has not been convicted of a moving violation of the Alabama Rules of the Road within the preceding six months". Six clean months, not merely six months. A moving violation in month five resets the clock on the verification even if the six months of holding the license have already run.

There is a parallel route out of the restrictions that the manual describes and the web page does not emphasize. A person 16 but under 18 who has held a learner license — including a comparable license from another state — for six months, or until their eighteenth birthday, and has developed the necessary skills, may present for the road test, surrendering the learner license at the time. On passing, the manual says, the applicant is issued a new regular license with the "Y" restriction removed for the remainder of the four-year period, "at no cost to the applicant". Read that alongside the Stage III fee: the two documents are describing different transactions, so ask at the counter which one applies to your teenager's card before assuming either the fee or the waiver.

School attendance is a licensing condition in Alabama, not just a household one

Alabama ties the license to the classroom in two directions, and both belong in a family's planning. Going in, an applicant under 19 has to show the school either kept them or finished with them — the enrollment-or-exclusion form if they are still in class, a graduation certificate or GED if they are not — under Act 93-368, whose bargain is simple: finish secondary school or stay enrolled, with a short list of exclusions. Coming out, the manual lists among the causes for which a license may be suspended that a driver is "ages 15 through 18 and withdraw[s] from school under certain conditions prior to graduation". The certain conditions are not decorative; the Code contemplates a defined process around them.

The process lives in Title 16. Section 16-28-41 requires the State Department of Education to distribute written guidelines to each school system for developing a written school policy defining "circumstances beyond the control" of a person subject to denial or revocation of the driving privilege, and outlining the appeal process available to that person; the school system must give each student adequate written information about the guidelines, sanctions and rights. Section 16-28-42 requires the Department of Education and the Department of Public Safety to jointly adopt implementing regulations including a hearing and appeal process, and § 16-28-45 provides that where this article directly conflicts with other attendance or motor vehicle law, this article supersedes. If a withdrawal is on the table for reasons outside a student's control, that written school policy and its appeal are the mechanism to ask about by name.

Two other suspension grounds on the manual's list reach teenagers specifically. A first offense DUI or drugs is listed for juveniles as well as adults, and Alabama's under-21 threshold is far below the adult one: § 32-5A-191 makes it unlawful for a person under 21 to drive with 0.02 percent or more by weight of alcohol in the blood, against 0.08 for an adult. That is a difference of degree large enough that the ordinary adult intuition about "one drink" does not transfer at all.

The contract in the back of the manual, and why it is there

Alabama prints a Parent/Teen Driving Agreement in the back of its driver manual, signature lines and all, with a review date to be filled in. It is not law and nobody will check it, but it is the state's own attempt to give parents a script, and several of its clauses are stricter than the graduated-license restrictions. On passengers it starts at zero rather than one: immediately after receiving the license, the teenager will not be allowed any passengers except by the parents' permission, earning one passenger as experience accumulates. On phones it is absolute — no cell phone or other electronic device while driving, pull over to make or receive a call or text.

Other clauses cover ground no statute reaches. Asking permission before every drive until the parents withdraw the rule, and no unscheduled stops or side trips. Keeping parents informed of exactly where the teenager is. Not leaving the scene of any accident, however minor, without permission from police officers or parents. No alcohol — and, if the law is broken anyway, no driving for 24 hours afterward. Not riding as a passenger with any driver who has used alcohol or drugs. No thrill-seeking, racing or stunts of any kind. Reporting every ticket, accident and encounter with police, including warnings. Not letting anyone else drive the car without specific permission for the specific case. No car stereo for the first month. No driving while emotionally upset, with an explicit right to keep the reason private and call for a ride instead. No smoking, no eating, no distractions. Friends ride only with their own parents' permission.

The consequence clause is deliberately vague and deliberately parental: if the teenager violates the rules, the parents will not allow them to drive without a parent in the car for some period of time. The agreement ends with a nine-point key-points list — obey the law, drive only with permission, seat belts, passengers are limited, no cell phone use while driving, parents must know where I am, don't leave the scene of an accident, no alcohol, drugs or smoking, no eating — and a line for the date on which the contract will be reviewed and possibly revised, which is the part most families skip and the part that makes it a living document rather than a signing ceremony.

Alabama licensing — frequently asked questions

Official sources

• ALEA — Graduated Driver License: the Act #2010-735 synopsis, the four exemptions, the three stages, the stage fees, the Stage II restrictions and the enforcement paragraph
• Code of Alabama (Alabama Legislature) — § 32-6-7.2, the codified graduated licensing section: the seven midnight exceptions, the passenger exclusions, the handheld qualifier, the penalty ladder and the parental fine; also § 32-6-8 on the two learner licenses and its 21-or-older accompaniment rule, § 32-6-3 on third-party testing, §§ 16-28-41, 16-28-42 and 16-28-45 on the school-attendance policy and its appeal, and § 32-5A-191 on the under-21 alcohol threshold
• Alabama Driver Manual, November 2024 edition (ALEA Driver License Division) — the learner licenses and the "Y" restriction, the GDL summary on the back pages, the school-withdrawal suspension ground and the Parent/Teen Driving Agreement
• ALEA — Private High School Driver & Traffic Safety Education Program: the 70-hour minimum, the 30-hour classroom phase, the third-party testing program under Act No. 2012-501 and driving without a learner license in a driver education vehicle
• ALEA — Document Requirements and Fees: the certified birth certificate required of every 15-year-old applicant, the school enrollment form for applicants under 19 and the fees at each stage
• ALEA — Driver License Point System: the point values behind the four-or-more-points suspension trigger that applies to graduated licensees

Checked against official state sources on August 21, 2026.