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Lawmakers tap the gas on bill lowering age for learner's permits to 15

In this Monday, Nov. 23, 2009 photo, driver's ed student Elliot Nicholson, 15, drives a course at Miami Killian Senior High School in Miami. Because of budget cuts, many schools around the country are leaving driver's ed by the side of the road. They are cutting back on behind-the-wheel instruction or eliminating it altogether, leaving it to parents to either teach their teenagers themselves or send them to commercial driving schools. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
Wilfredo Lee/ASSOCIATED PRESS
/
AP
In this Monday, Nov. 23, 2009 photo, driver's ed student Elliot Nicholson, 15, drives a course at Miami Killian Senior High School in Miami. Because of budget cuts, many schools around the country are leaving driver's ed by the side of the road. They are cutting back on behind-the-wheel instruction or eliminating it altogether, leaving it to parents to either teach their teenagers themselves or send them to commercial driving schools. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Kentucky teenagers could get behind the wheel at age 15 under a bill approved by the Kentucky Senate on Tuesday.

Kentucky has found itself part of an increasingly small minority of states that keep teenagers from getting their learner's permit until they're 16.

House Bill 15, which cleared another major hurdle Tuesday in the Senate, changes that.

"This six-month time frame may seem like a small thing, but for working parents with kids' numerous schedules, sports activities, and desire to work, it can be a long time," Lexington Republican Amanda Mays Bledsoe explained.

Under the new law, which is set to take effect immediately on final passage, the learner's permit age would be lowered to 15.

All other requirements — from the 60 hours of driving practice and the six-month wait to apply for a full license — would remain in place.