New Hampshire supervised driving
How to fill out New Hampshire’s DSMV 509
DSMV 509 certifies the 40 hours of practice New Hampshire law requires alongside a driver education program, at least 10 of them between half an hour after sunset and half an hour before sunrise. Both the applicant and a parent or guardian certify the record, each under penalty of unsworn falsification.
Fill the header, then a row per session
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Complete the driver’s details
Full name, date of birth, telephone and address sit above the log. They identify whose practice the certifications below refer to.
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Record the session between two clock times
The Time column takes a start and an end with AM or PM. Entering both is what makes the hours figure beside it checkable rather than an estimate.
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Put the hours in the daytime or nighttime side
The hours column — headed Cumulative Hours on the form, though each row takes that session’s own hours rather than a running total — is split in two, Daytime and Nighttime. A session that is wholly day or wholly night fills one side; a drive that runs across dusk splits, its daytime hours on the Daytime side and its after-dark hours on the Nighttime side of the same row. New Hampshire defines night precisely: from half an hour after sunset to half an hour before sunrise, so a drive finishing just after dusk may contribute less night time than it feels like.
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Name the skill and take the initials
The Skill Practiced column offers highway and parking as examples. The parent or guardian initials the row alongside it.
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Total this page, the back page, and the record
Three lines close the log: Total Time this page, Total Time back page, and Total Time Logged. Each keeps the daytime and nighttime split, so both halves of the requirement stay visible.
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Sign both certifications
The applicant certifies the 40 hours with at least 10 at night, and the parent or guardian certifies the same separately. Both are signed under penalty of unsworn falsification, so neither is a formality.
An after-dark session, and which half of the column it fills
The hours column is one heading over two sides, which is easy to misread as a single field. Take twenty-five minutes of practice on the evening of January 6.
- Date
- 01/06/26
- Time — Start / End
- 8:20 PM / 8:45 PM, with the PM
- Hours — Daytime
- Left empty
- Hours — Nighttime
- 0.42 — decimal hours, on the night side only
- Skill Practiced
- Turns and intersections — the header offers highway and parking as the register
- Parent or Guardian Initials
- Initialled alongside the row
- Total Time Logged
- 1.35 daytime and 1.25 nighttime — the two halves totalled separately, never merged
Writing 0.42 into the daytime side moves the session out of the 10 hours that must fall between half an hour after sunset and half an hour before sunrise. The totals rows carry the split all the way down, so a mis-sided entry shows up in the certification rather than in the sum.
What undermines a DSMV 509
- Writing a session’s hours into the daytime side when it happened after dark, which quietly drains the 10-hour night requirement.
- Counting dusk as night — New Hampshire’s window opens half an hour after sunset, not at sunset.
- Leaving the applicant’s certification unsigned because the parent or guardian signed theirs.
- Reading Total Time this page as the whole record when the back page has its own line and a third line adds them.
What fills a DSMV 509 row
The export writes one row per session and keeps the day/night split the form maintains from the first row to the last total:
| On the DSMV 509 Certification of Additional Supervised Driving | Comes from |
|---|---|
| Full Name of Driver | The student’s name. Date of birth, telephone and address are yours to complete. |
| Time — Start / End | The session’s clock times with AM or PM. |
| Cumulative Hours — Daytime / Nighttime | The daytime and after-dark hours you logged for that session, each written into its matching side; a drive spanning dusk fills both. The split comes from the hours you recorded rather than from the clock times beside it, so check that the two agree. Despite the “Cumulative” heading, each row carries its own session’s time — the totals rows below do the adding. |
| Skill Practiced | What the session covered, from the skills recorded against the drive. |
| Parent or Guardian Initials | Initials derived from the supervising adult, as a prompt for their check rather than a substitute for it. |
| Total Time this page / back page / logged | Summed from the printed rows with the daytime and nighttime columns kept apart. |
Both certification blocks stay blank by design. The applicant and the parent or guardian sign the printed form themselves, each under RSA 641:3.
Frequently asked questions
What counts as night on DSMV 509?
The period from half an hour after sunset to half an hour before sunrise. A drive that ends soon after dusk contributes less to the 10-hour minimum than it appears to.
Who signs the form?
Both the applicant and a parent or guardian, in separate certification blocks, each signed under penalty of unsworn falsification pursuant to RSA 641:3.
Does practice before driver education count?
The form encourages practice as much as possible beforehand, provided the driver is at least 15 years and 6 months old and accompanied by a licensed driver aged 25 or over.
Who may supervise the driving?
A licensed parent or guardian, or a licensed adult over the age of 25, per the requirement printed at the top of the form.
Track your New Hampshire hours
Log every supervised drive and Learner Log keeps the totals ready for the DSMV 509 Certification of Additional Supervised Driving.
Still deciding how to keep the record? Compare paper against an app. Not sure where the DSMV 509 Certification of Additional Supervised Driving ends up? See submitting a log versus certifying the hours.
Official sources: Official DSMV 509 Certification of Additional Supervised Driving. New Hampshire licensing instructions. This guide was last reviewed against the official form on ; New Hampshire 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.