Illinois Drivers Won’t Need a Road Test Until Age 87 Under New Law

Illinois drivers no longer have to pass a behind-the-wheel driving test at every renewal once they hit their late seventies. Under the Road Safety and Fairness Act, which took effect July 1, the state raised the mandatory road test age from 79 to 87, while adding a new process that lets family members flag a relative whose driving has become a safety concern. The law reshapes how hundreds of thousands of older Illinois drivers renew their licenses, and it changes what happens when a family notices a parent or grandparent struggling behind the wheel.

What the Road Safety and Fairness Act Changes

The bill, HB 1226, passed the General Assembly in May 2025 with bipartisan support and was signed by Gov. JB Pritzker that August. State Sen. Ram Villivalam of Chicago and State Rep. Jay Hoffman of Belleville sponsored the measure, which drew co-sponsors from 70 percent of lawmakers before it passed.

Before the change, Illinois required a road test at every license renewal starting at age 79, a threshold the state adopted through emergency rulemaking in 2022 after a pandemic-driven backlog of renewals overwhelmed Secretary of State facilities. The new law pushes that threshold back to 87, the age at which Illinois first mandated annual road tests decades ago.

Drivers who turn 79 or 80 this year still have to visit a Secretary of State facility in person to renew, and they still take a vision test. If their driving record includes a violation, they take a written test too. What they skip is the road test itself, the part of the process that previously required scheduling an appointment and driving a set route with an examiner in the passenger seat.

Drivers between 81 and 86 face the same requirements, renewing in person every two years with a vision test and, if needed, a written test, but no road test. Once a driver reaches 87, nothing changes: annual renewal, a vision test and a road test every year, the same standard Illinois has applied to its oldest drivers for years.

Why the Renewal Date, Not the Birthday, Decides Who Tests

The Secretary of State’s office has been explicit about one detail that catches people off guard: the new rules apply based on when a renewal happens, not when the birthday lands. If a license expired before July 1, the driver still has to complete a road test to renew, regardless of how long they wait to visit the facility after the law took effect. Anyone in the 79-to-86 range whose renewal window opened in the weeks before July 1 should check with their local facility before assuming the road test requirement no longer applies to them.

A New Way for Families to Flag a Driving Concern

The second major piece of the law creates a formal channel for immediate family members to report worries about a relative’s ability to drive safely. Under the process, a spouse, adult child, sibling or other immediate family member can submit a report to the Secretary of State’s office describing a decline in cognitive function, a vision impairment, a medical condition or driving behavior that concerns them.

A report by itself doesn’t strip anyone of their license. The Secretary of State’s office reviews each submission individually, and the outcome can range from no action at all to a request that the driver complete a vision test, a written test or a road test before their next scheduled renewal. The process gives families a formal path that didn’t exist before, replacing word-of-mouth pressure on a relative to give up their keys with a structured review by the state.

Illinois built the reporting mechanism to work alongside the loosened road test rules rather than in place of them. Lawmakers who pushed the bill argued that blanket road tests based purely on age swept up plenty of drivers who posed no real risk, while doing little to catch the smaller number of drivers, at any age, whose specific medical or cognitive changes actually affect safety. The family reporting option is meant to target that second group directly.

The Data Behind the Change

A 2023 report from the Illinois Secretary of State’s office, released under then-newly elected Secretary Alexi Giannoulias, found that drivers 75 and older were involved in fewer crashes than any other age group in the state. That finding became a central argument for supporters of the bill, who said Illinois was applying its strictest testing requirements to the demographic with the best crash record on the road.

Even with the change, Illinois keeps one of the more demanding senior license renewal systems in the country. Many states rely on shorter renewal cycles, vision tests or in-person appearance requirements for older drivers rather than mandatory road tests at any specific age. Illinois still requires an annual road test starting at 87, a standard few other states apply at any age.

How Illinois Compares With Other States

Most states dropped mandatory road tests for older drivers years ago, relying instead on shorter renewal cycles, in-person appearance requirements or vision screening to catch drivers whose ability to drive safely has declined. Some states have moved the opposite direction recently. Texas is rolling out new rules this year that require drivers 75 and older to renew in person rather than remotely, with vision testing at the center of the process, while drivers 70 to 74 can still qualify for remote renewal under certain conditions.

Illinois’ approach is unusual in pairing a road test at a specific age with a family-initiated reporting system that can trigger a review at any age. Few other states combine both mechanisms. Most rely on one or the other: either an age-based testing trigger or a complaint-driven review process, but rarely both working together the way Illinois’ new law does.

Research on older drivers generally supports the idea that age alone is a poor predictor of crash risk. Studies from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety have found that crash rates per mile driven do rise again after age 70, but the increase is driven largely by physical fragility in a crash rather than a higher rate of causing one. Illinois lawmakers cited similar reasoning when they argued that a uniform road test requirement swept up far more low-risk drivers than it identified high-risk ones.

What Illinois Drivers Should Do Now

Drivers between 79 and 86 whose licenses are up for renewal should bring proof of identity and be ready for a vision test at their local Secretary of State facility. Those with a driving violation on record in the past renewal cycle should expect a written test as well. No appointment for a road test is necessary unless the office requests one following a family report or a flagged medical condition.

Family members who want to submit a report about a relative’s driving can contact the Secretary of State’s Driver Services Department directly. The office reviews medical and vision conditions on a case-by-case basis and can request supporting documentation from a physician if a report raises specific concerns.

Drivers turning 87 this year or later should plan for the unchanged annual cycle: a vision test and a road test every year at renewal, the same standard the state has used for its oldest license holders for decades.

Adult children and other immediate family members who are considering a report should know it is meant as a safety review, not a punishment. The Secretary of State’s office independently evaluates each submission and can request documentation from a treating physician before deciding whether any additional testing is warranted, so a report alone does not put a license at immediate risk. Families deciding whether to use the process can find guidance on medical and vision reporting requirements through the Secretary of State’s Driver Services Department.

Sources:

• Illinois Secretary of State, “Giannoulias Ends Mandatory Road Tests for Drivers Ages 79-86,” June 17, 2026
• Illinois Secretary of State, “Understanding Illinois’ Road Safety and Fairness Act”
• WTTW News / Capitol News Illinois, “Starting July 1, Only Illinois Residents Aged 87 or Older Required to Take Annual Driving Test,” June 25, 2026