Connecticut driving lesson · Teen Driver Rules & Restrictions
Permit holders: trainers and passengers
A 3-minute lesson from the Connecticut course. Read the rules and examples, follow the handbook page references, and check your understanding before you move on.
While you hold a learner's permit you are still learning, so Connecticut tightly controls who rides with you. If you're 16 or 17, the only passengers allowed are the people teaching you.
Know the rule
A permit holder must carry the learner's permit whenever he or she is operating a vehicle.
The person giving instruction must sit in the front passenger seat next to the learner and be alert and ready to take over control. Safe operation is the responsibility of both the instructor and the driver.
Passenger restrictions do not apply during the actual time the permit holder is receiving instruction from a licensed instructor from a commercial driving school or driver education program.
Your older cousin, 23, has been licensed for 3 years and offers to supervise your practice. At 16 you can't count on them: an instructor must have held a license for four or more consecutive years. Your grandmother, licensed 40 years with no suspensions, qualifies.
Check your understanding
Read the question, decide on an answer, then open it to check the explanation. These are Roadwise study questions based on the source handbook.
During the entire time a 16- or 17-year-old holds a learner's permit, who may ride as a passenger?
Up to two friends at a time
A licensed or qualified instructor, plus parents or guardians
Siblings who are 16 or older
Any licensed driver age 18 or older
Answer: A licensed or qualified instructor, plus parents or guardians
A 16- or 17-year-old permit holder may carry only a licensed driving instructor (and those with the instructor), one qualified trainer age 20+, and parents or a legal guardian accompanying the instructor.
A 16-year-old permit holder is taking a lesson from a licensed instructor at a commercial driving school. Do the usual permit passenger restrictions apply?
No, but only if the parent is also present
Yes, unless the lesson is under 30 minutes
No, not during lessons from a licensed instructor
Yes, restrictions always apply regardless of instructor
Answer: No, not during lessons from a licensed instructor
Passenger restrictions do not apply during instruction from a licensed driver instructor from a commercial driving school or driver ed program.
Having a parent anywhere in the vehicle automatically lifts a 16-year-old permit holder's passenger restrictions.
True
False
Answer: False
Passenger restrictions lift only during specific instruction from a licensed driving-school instructor; a parent's presence alone does not remove them.