“Parents have to have a lot of buy-in for teens to get their license. From age 15 and a half to age 17, they need to have passed the driver’s knowledge test and have their parents’ signed permission. If they are younger than age 15 and a half, they must be enrolled in a driver’s training school and have their parents’ signed permission. Students need an instruction permit to practice driving.At age 15, teens can enroll in Traffic Safety Education (TSE) classes, which include 30 hours of classroom instruction, a minimum of six hours of driving practice, and a minimum of one hour of behind-the-wheel observation.Rules listed at the Department of Licensing website include:
The road to obtaining your license as a teenager in Washington state is pretty straightforward, according to Robert Hensley, owner and instructor at 911 Driving School, which has five locations in the greater Seattle area.
It turns out not every teen today is aching to take the steering wheel. As our own teens are 15 going on 16, the path to a driver’s license looks different, and not just because of changes in the law. We can remember arriving at that government office the first hour of the first day we became eligible, itching to get licensed and for the freedom that license brought. When many of us parents were 15 going on 16, passing our driving test topped the list of important life milestones.