Stronger driver licensing laws play a part in keeping roads safe for everyone, but parents play a critical role in enforcing these laws and serving as good role models for their children. Since many state laws lack key provisions, graduated driver licensing laws should be considered as baselines.

Parent-to-Parent Driver Agreement

AAA encourages parents to work as a team to ensure teens gain driving experience in the safest environment possible during that first year. AAA also encourages parents to talk with one another about the driving rules in their respective homes and encourages them to develop some common rules. That way, teens who are friends, have the same or similar rules, which helps remove some of the peer pressure to break parental-imposed rules. Families are joining forces by creating voluntary parent-to-parent agreements between families that define acceptable driving behavior. Some high schools and community organizations also are encouraging these contracts to create a support system for parents and greater protection for teens.

Download the Parent-to-Parent Driver Agreement

Parent-Teen Driver Agreement

As a parent, you also can add protective guidelines through a Parent-Teen Driving Agreement. These agreements were pioneered about 15 years ago to address some key facts:

• A recent study by the National Institutes of Health confirms that parental involvement and restrictions significantly reduce risky driving behavior during a driver's first 12-18 months behind the wheel.
• Teens lack experience and judgment and are susceptible to impulse behavior and peer pressure. An agreement can help teens govern their behavior in unfamiliar circumstances.

An agreement communicates that driving is a privilege that your family takes seriously.

It's important that parents and teens share a clear understanding of expectations and consequences. Putting expectations and consequences in writing helps parents enforce standards consistently.

Parents should review and adjust the agreement before presenting it to the teen for discussion. To make this agreement meaningful, it's important that you do not allow your teen to drive independently until the agreement is signed.

Schedule a review date for the agreement. As your new driver demonstrates good driving habits and good judgment over time, specific points in the agreement may be renegotiated. You may relax restrictions or allow special privileges, or if your teen has not lived up to the agreement, add new restrictions.

Download the Parent-Teen Driving Agreement