The Minnesota supervised driving log is a form that records at least 50 hours of behind-the-wheel practice a teen under 18 completes with a qualifying adult before taking the road test for a provisional license. That total drops to 40 hours if a parent or guardian completes a supplemental awareness class. Either way, 15 of those hours must be at night. The completed, signed log is submitted at the road test appointment.
How Many Hours You Need
There are two paths, and the parent decides which one applies:
- 50 hours of supervised driving, with at least 15 hours at night, if no parent class is taken.1Minnesota Department of Public Safety. Supervised Driving Log
- 40 hours of supervised driving, with at least 15 hours at night, if a parent or guardian completes the supplemental class.1Minnesota Department of Public Safety. Supervised Driving Log
The supplemental class is a 90-minute session offered through approved driver education programs. It covers teen driving risks and the graduated licensing process. The parent receives a certificate of completion, which is submitted with the log at the road test. A certificate covers one teen only, so parents with more than one child going through licensing need to take the class again for each.
The 15-hour nighttime minimum is the same on either path. Spread across the six-month permit period, 50 hours works out to roughly two hours of practice per week.
Who Can Supervise the Driving
Minnesota law allows three categories of adults to supervise a permit holder under 18: a certified driver education instructor, the teen’s parent or guardian, or any other licensed driver who is at least 21 years old.2Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 171.05 – Instruction Permit A parent or guardian can supervise at any adult age as long as they hold a valid license; non-family supervisors must be 21 or older.
The supervising adult has to sit in the front passenger seat for the entire session. Supervising from the back seat or by phone does not count. The teen must carry the instruction permit while driving, and the supervisor signs each session on the log. Rotating through several qualifying adults is fine; each signs for the sessions they supervised.
When You Can Start Logging Hours
Logging begins after the teen finishes the behind-the-wheel instruction portion of driver education, not before. The supervised hours are separate from and in addition to the behind-the-wheel training done with a certified instructor.
The instruction permit itself is available at age 15 after passing the written knowledge test, and it must be held for at least six months before the road test.2Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 171.05 – Instruction Permit Those six months and the 50 (or 40) hours run in parallel, so the practical window for logging is the permit period after driver ed’s road training wraps up.
Filling Out the Log
The official log is a PDF from the Minnesota Department of Public Safety’s Driver and Vehicle Services. You can also pick one up at a local driver education provider or DVS exam station. Each entry records:
- The date of the practice session
- Start and end times
- Whether the driving was daytime or nighttime
- The supervisor’s signature
Daytime and nighttime hours have separate columns so progress toward the 15-hour night minimum is easy to track, and a running total section shows how many hours are left. Update the log after each drive. Entries filled in all at once in the same pen can look suspicious at the exam station. The supervisor should sign on the same day the practice takes place.
Keep the form somewhere it won’t get crumpled, stained, or lost. A damaged or illegible log can cause delays. If you run out of space, attach additional sheets using the same format.
Submitting the Log at the Road Test
Bring the completed log to the road test appointment along with the driver education certificate of course completion, sometimes called the White Card. If a parent took the supplemental class, bring that certificate too.1Minnesota Department of Public Safety. Supervised Driving Log A parent or guardian signs the log’s certification section affirming that the required hours were completed.
If the log is incomplete, unsigned, or the hours do not add up, the appointment will not move forward and the test has to be rescheduled. Showing up ten hours short is the common failure point for families who leave logging to the last few weeks.
Getting the Hours Done
Fifty hours is more time than most families expect. A few patterns help:
- Start logging as soon as the behind-the-wheel portion of driver ed is finished. Waiting until month four of the permit means roughly twelve hours a week to catch up.
- Mix conditions: rain, highways, parking lots, construction zones, rush hour. The road test can include any of these.
- Treat the 15 nighttime hours as real practice. Teens are overrepresented in nighttime crashes, and supervised night driving is one of the few interventions shown to reduce that risk.
- Weigh the parent class. Ninety minutes trades for ten hours of required practice.
- Use routine trips. Drives to school, the grocery store, and weekend activities all count.
Some families use apps like RoadReady to track sessions digitally and then transfer the totals onto the official paper form before the road test. Digital tracking helps with accuracy, but the DVS form is what you hand in at the exam station.