Guide to Parent-Teen Driving Contracts 

Sure, your state has Graduated Driver Licensing (GDL) laws that may restrict your teen driver’s curfew, passengers, and supervision. But depending on your state, these laws may not be enough to keep your child safe. In Arizona, for instance, there is no driving curfew or restrictions on passengers, meaning that as soon as a teen driver gets their learner’s permit at age 15-and-a-half, they can drive all night with as many teenage passengers as they want. This may be legal, but that doesn’t mean it’s safe.

Many parents sign driving contracts with their teens to establish safer driving practices and supplement state laws. This article will define what a parent-teen driving contract is, explain how it can benefit your teen driver, and provide example contracts you can print out and sign today.

Video Breakdown

Amanda Mushro tells you everything you need to know about how a parent-teen contract can make your child a safer driver.

What Are Parent-Teen Driving Contracts?

Parent-teen driving contracts are written, non-legally binding agreements between parents and their teenage children. By signing the contract, teens promise they will follow certain safety practices while driving. Contracts could include stipulations on driving hours, supervision, distracted driving, passengers, and so on.

Why Should I Use a Parent-Teen Driving Agreement?

Insufficient State Driving Rules

Every state except Vermont has driving curfews for teens with their learner’s permits, although the exact hours vary by state¹. In some states, like Florida, the curfew is as late as 1 a.m. for drivers as young as 17 years old. In the same vein, a handful of states have no restrictions on passengers, meaning your teen can legally drive with their most distracting friends. Not to mention, teens aren’t always even aware of teen driving laws in their state.

Laws aren’t always enough to keep teens safe, and that’s why many parents sign a driving contract with their teens as an additional safeguard. While the idea of a contract might elicit an eye roll from some teen drivers, they can raise teens’ awareness of their behaviors behind the wheel. Contracts allow families to tailor expectations and rules to their specific situation, and can cover areas not always addressed (or addressed sufficiently) by the law. This includes curfews, passenger limits, or technology use while driving.

High Crash Rates

Teens have higher crash rates than any other age group due to their lack of driving experience, according to 2022 data (the most recent available) from the National Safety Council.

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Given their high rates of crashes and fatal crashes in particular, teens have expensive auto insurance costs, which will only go up if they get into an accident.

Safer Driving

Research has found parent-teen driving contracts (sometimes called agreements) are effective in improving teen driving safety, particularly when used as part of broader driver education programs. For example, the Checkpoints young driver safety program, which incorporates parent-teen driving contracts, has demonstrated success in reducing risky driving behaviors.

The effectiveness of parent-teen driving contracts depends a lot on how they’re implemented. Passively giving program materials to teens is usually ineffective. Rather, contracts are most effective when parents are actively involved in clearly communicating expectations.

Experts recommend:

• Creating a contract that outlines specific rules and limits (rather than vague promises)
• Keeping the contract visible
• Updating the contract as the teen gains more driving experience

What a Parent-Teen Driving Contract Includes

Curfews

The fatal crash rate for drivers 16 to 19 is four times as high at night versus during the day. Drivers ages 16 and 17 are more at risk of getting into a crash at night than any other age group, according to AAP data. See if your state’s curfew is sufficient if it has one. If it isn’t sufficient or doesn’t exist, include your own curfew in your parent-teen driving contract. Consider a different curfew for weekends and weekdays, and time of year to account for sunset times. Consider no unsupervised nighttime driving until the teen gains experience behind the wheel, and then gradually increasing the curfew.

Passengers Limits

When a teen is driving with passengers in the car, they are often distracted, making the situation an even higher risk.2 In fact, in 15 percent of teen distracted-driving cases, the driver was interacting with another passenger, according to an AAA study. Other teenagers are the most distracting passengers, so set passenger limits you are comfortable with. Similar to a curfew, consider no teen passengers until the teen gains more supervised driving experience, and then gradually increasing the limit.

Distracted-Driving Guidelines

Many parents also ban their teens from using any electronic devices while driving, even hands-free devices.

Distracted driving is an issue for all drivers, but it’s a problem for teenagers in particular. Texting and driving is tempting for teen drivers, especially after they graduate from their learner’s permits and no longer require adult supervision while driving. Though only 16 percent of teens ages 14 and 15 texted or emailed while driving in 2019, that number rose to 60 percent for

Distracted driving is an issue for all drivers, but it’s a problem for teenagers in particular. Texting and driving is tempting for teen drivers, especially after they graduate from their learner’s permits and no longer require adult supervision while driving. Though only 16 percent of teens ages 14 and 15 texted or emailed while driving in 2019, that number rose to 60 percent for 18-year-olds, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Our own survey of teen drivers found that nearly half of teens admitted to texting and driving in the past week.

DUI Pledge

Your teen is legally not allowed to drive while under the influence of drugs or alcohol, but you can have them pledge sobriety in the contract anyway. Compared to sober drivers ages 16 to 20, drivers in that age range with blood alcohol content of 0.05 to 0.079 percent are 12 times more likely to be killed in single-vehicle crashes.³

Seat Belt Use

Drivers age 18 to 24 are less likely to wear seatbelts than other age groups, according to the CDC. Not all states require seat belt use in every seat, even for those under 18. Also, some seat belt laws are under secondary enforcement, meaning police can only stop your teen for not wearing a seat belt if they’re committing another traffic violation. Yet over half of the fatalities from crashes in 2021 for teens ages 13 to 19 were not wearing a seat belt at the time of the accident.

Some good news: according to our teen driver survey, over 90 percent of teens report wearing seatbelts almost every time they get behind the wheel. Still, a parent-teen driving contract should require seat belt use. CDC data shows that seat belt use in the front passenger seat reduces the risk of critical injuries by 50 percent and death by 45 percent. Wearing a seatbelt can prevent injuries, and even save a life.

Sample Parent-Teen Driving Contracts

You can view and download sample parent-teen driving contracts here:

• National Safety Council⁴
• AAA⁵
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention⁷

Max Benz, owner of Remote Canteen⁹ and father of a teenage driver, says his parent-teen driving contract “stipulates that our 17-year-old must obey all traffic laws, avoid using cell phones while driving, and refrain from driving with passengers under the age of 18.”

Of course, these agreements have their limits, Benz admits. “While parent-teenager driving contracts can be helpful in promoting safe driving habits, it is important to note that they are not legally binding. In other words, if our 17-year-old breaks the rules of the contract, of course, we don’t take legal action against him.”

Conclusion

To learn more about keeping your teen driver safe, visit our teen driver hub, where we have all of the information you and your teen need to be accident-free. We’ve also reviewed the best auto insurance for households with teen drivers.