{"id":41333,"date":"2026-06-28T18:23:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T23:23:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/?p=41333"},"modified":"2026-06-28T18:23:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T23:23:17","slug":"new-illinois-driving-test-age-requirements-start-july-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/local-news\/41333-new-illinois-driving-test-age-requirements-start-july-1\/","title":{"rendered":"New Illinois Driving Test Age Requirements Start July 1"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"pdfprnt-buttons pdfprnt-buttons-post pdfprnt-top-right\"><a href=\"javascript: window.print()\" class=\"pdfprnt-button pdfprnt-button-print\" target=\"_self\" ><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/plugins\/pdf-print\/images\/print.png\" alt=\"image_print\" title=\"Print Content\" \/><span class=\"pdfprnt-button-title pdfprnt-button-print-title\">Print<\/span><\/a><\/div><p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The 2025 law raises mandatory driving test age for older drivers<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><b>Article Summary<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Beginning July 1, only drivers aged 87 and older will be required to take a driving test annually to renew their license.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Drivers 79 and older will still be required to take a vision test, and immediate family can report cognitive or physical health issues.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The law comes after a 2023 report showed older drivers are involved in the least number of crashes compared to any other age group.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This summary was written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By JENNA SCHWEIKERT\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Capitol News Illinois\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><a href=\"mailto:jschweikert@capitolnewsillinois.com\u00a0\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">jschweikert@capitolnewsillinois.com\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A law taking effect July 1 will raise the age at which older drivers must take a driving test to renew their license.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The 2025 law, titled the Road Safety and Fairness Act, also creates a process for immediate family members to report cognitive or physical health declines to the state for review.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The minimum age for a driving test will be raised from 79 to 87, although drivers 79 and older will still be required to take a vision test, and if they have a driving violation, a written test.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Drivers between the ages of 81 and 86 must renew in-person every two years. The law for drivers aged 87 and older \u2014 annual license renewal with both a vision and driving test \u2014 will not change.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 2022, the General Assembly and the secretary of state worked to adjust license requirements through emergency rulemaking power and a later trailer bill, amid a pandemic-driven backlog of license renewals.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Illinois still has one of the strictest renewal requirements for older drivers. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ilsos.gov\/content\/dam\/news\/2023\/september\/230926d1.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But a 2023 report <\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">from Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias shows drivers aged 75 and older are involved in the least number of crashes compared to any other age group.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Road Safety and Fairness Act passed the General Assembly with bipartisan support in May 2025 and was signed by Gov. JB Pritzker in August.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/capitolnewsillinois.com\/\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Capitol News Illinois<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 2025 law raises mandatory driving test age for older drivers Article Summary Beginning July 1, only drivers aged 87 and older will be required to take a driving test [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":41334,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>New Illinois Driving Test Age Requirements Start July 1 - Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/local-news\/41333-new-illinois-driving-test-age-requirements-start-july-1\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New Illinois Driving Test Age Requirements Start July 1 - 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