Iowa supervised driving
How to fill out the Iowa Supervised Driving Log
Iowa asks for 20 hours of supervised driving with at least 2 after dark for an intermediate license, held over a 12-month instruction-permit period. A further 10 hours — 2 of them at night, for 30 and 4 in total — apply on the way to a full license before 18. The log is the record behind a parent or guardian’s certification rather than a form the licensing office collects trip by trip.
Fill one line per side of a date
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Start a line for each side of the date
The row carries a single Day/Night checkbox, so a line covers one side of one date. An afternoon drive and an evening drive on the same date need two lines with the date written twice — but two afternoon drives share the single Day line between them.
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Describe where the practice happened
The Location of Practice column suggests the level of detail it wants in its own header — “ex. rural, highway”. A road type or area is what it is after, not a route.
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Tick Day or Night, then record the weather
Check the box matching when the session happened and note the conditions. The 2-hour after-dark minimum is counted from those Night boxes, so a mis-ticked row moves time out of the requirement that is hardest to finish.
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Note the skills practiced and the driving time
Write what the session worked on, then the length in hours and minutes. Iowa’s total is small enough that a handful of unlogged sessions is a noticeable fraction of it.
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Have the supervising adult initial the line
The Adult’s Initials column closes the row. Iowa’s requirement is completed over a full year of permit-holding, so initialling as you go is far easier than reconstructing twelve months at the end.
One date, two lines, because the box only picks one
Say the driver runs errands for 20 minutes in the afternoon on January 5 and practices for another 20 minutes after dark the same evening. The Day/Night checkbox cannot represent both, so the date appears twice — once per side, however many drives happened on each.
- Line 1 — Date
- 01/05/2026
- Line 1 — Location of Practice
- Residential area
- Line 1 — Day/Night
- Day ticked, Night empty
- Line 1 — Driving time
- 0:20 — hours and minutes, not a decimal
- Line 2 — Date
- 01/05/2026 — the same date again
- Line 2 — Day/Night
- Night ticked, Day empty
- Line 2 — Driving time
- 0:20
- TOTAL
- Runs at the foot of the Driving time column — 2:36 after a few sessions, on its way to 20:00
Only line 2 counts toward the 2-hour after-dark minimum. Combining the two sessions onto one line would keep the overall total right and quietly lose half the night practice — the requirement most likely to be short at the end.
Where an Iowa log loses time
- Merging a day session and a night session onto one line because they share a date — the single checkbox forces a choice, and the night half is what gets lost.
- Leaving the Skills practiced column blank, which is the one column Iowa fills from nothing but what you wrote down.
- Stopping at 20 hours when heading for a full license before 18, which needs 30 hours with 4 at night.
- Treating the hours as the whole requirement and overlooking the 12-month permit period running alongside them.
- Writing the driving time as a decimal when the export prints the column, and its TOTAL, in hours and minutes — mixing the two makes the row and the total disagree.
What lands on each Iowa line
The export splits a date into its day and night halves so each gets its own line and its own checkbox, ordered by date with Day before Night:
| On the Supervised Driving Log | Comes from |
|---|---|
| Date | The date, repeated when it produced both a day and a night line. Several drives on the same side of one date combine onto that side’s single line. |
| Location of Practice | The practice locations recorded on that side of the date, trimmed to the cell width. |
| Day/Night | Ticked from the drive’s own day/night split — the half the line represents, so the box can never disagree with the time beside it. |
| Weather | The drive’s condition tags resolved through Iowa’s weather list (clear, rain, snow, fog, wind) and joined in that order. |
| Skills practiced | Your free-text notes for that session. Iowa publishes no skills list, so this column is whatever you wrote at the time — a reason to write something. |
| Driving time | That side’s logged minutes, printed as hours and minutes (0:20) to match the column and the TOTAL beneath it. |
| Adult’s Initials | Initials derived from the supervisor on that session, printed as a convenience — the adult still confirms the line is accurate. |
The form is page 14 of a booklet that also promotes a state-backed mobile app. The printed log is a complete record on its own; nothing on it requires the app.
Frequently asked questions
Why does one date sometimes need two lines?
Each line carries a single Day/Night checkbox rather than separate day and night time columns, so a date with practice on both sides of dark needs one line for each.
How many hours does Iowa ask for?
20 hours with at least 2 after dark for the intermediate stage, and 30 hours with 4 at night for a full license before 18. Waiting until 18 removes the practice-hour requirement altogether. All of it sits alongside a 12-month permit period that finishing early does not shorten.
What belongs in Location of Practice?
The header answers itself with “ex. rural, highway”. A road type or area is the level it wants; it is not asking for a route.
Is the driving time in hours or decimals?
The form sets no unit, but the export prints hours and minutes — a 20-minute session is 0:20 — and the TOTAL at the foot of the column adds up the same way, so match that on the printed sheet.
Track your Iowa hours
Log every supervised drive and Learner Log keeps the totals ready for the Supervised Driving Log.
Still deciding how to keep the record? Compare paper against an app. Not sure where the Supervised Driving Log ends up? See submitting a log versus certifying the hours.
Official sources: Official Supervised Driving Log. Iowa licensing instructions. This guide was last reviewed against the official form on ; Iowa can change its form or instructions at any time, so confirm the current version at the links above. Learner Log is an independent tracking tool, not affiliated with any licensing agency.