CODE OF VIRGINIA

MANNER OF ISSUING ORIGINAL DRIVER’S LICENSES TO MINORS (§ 46.2-336)

The Department shall forward all original driver’s licenses issued to
persons under the age of 18 years to the judge of the juvenile and domestic
relations court in the city or county in which the licensee resides. The judge
or a substitute judge shall issue to each person to be licensed the license so
forwarded, and shall, at the time of issuance, conduct a formal, appropriate
ceremony, in which he shall illustrate to the licensee the responsibility
attendant on the privilege of driving a motor vehicle. The attorney for the
Commonwealth who serves the jurisdiction in which the ceremony is to be
conducted may request in writing in advance of such ceremony an opportunity to
participate in the ceremony. Any judge who presides over such ceremony shall,
upon request, afford the attorney for the Commonwealth the opportunity to
participate in such ceremony and to address the prospective licensees and the
persons enumerated below who may be accompanying the prospective licensees as to
matters of enforcement, prosecutions, applicable punishments, and the
responsibility of drivers generally. If the licensee is under the age of 18
years at the time his ceremony is held, he shall be accompanied at the ceremony
by a parent, his guardian, spouse, or other person in loco parentis. However,
the judge, for good cause shown, may mail or otherwise deliver the
driver’s license to any person who is a student at any educational
institution outside of the Commonwealth of Virginia at the time such license is
received by the judge as prescribed in this section.The provisions of this
section shall not apply to the issuance of Virginia driver’s licenses to
persons who hold valid driver’s licenses issued by other states.

HISTORY: 1962, c. 261, § 46.1-375.1; 1964, c. 185; 1984, c. 780; 1989, c. 727;
1993, c. 53; 1998, c. 472; 2012, cc. 30, 100; 2014, c. 352.