The Older Sister as Supervising Driver

No - the practice is not compliant, and the instructor must say so before anything else.

• Maryland requires a supervising driver to be at least 21 years old and to have held a license for at least three years. The sister fails the age test outright, so her presence did not make the 12:30 a.m. drive lawful supervised practice - it was an unqualified person supervising a permit holder.
• Because the supervision was invalid, those sessions cannot be counted toward the 60 practice hours or the required night hours. The student's real total is lower than the 22 on the sheet, and her night total is effectively zero.
• Order of the conversation matters. First, state the rule as a fact about the state, not as the instructor's opinion - this keeps the parent from hearing it as a sales pitch. Second, explain what does not count and why, using the sister's age as the concrete anchor. Third, offer the compliant path: a qualified adult (21+, three years licensed) in the passenger seat, a structured night-practice plan the family can run without paying for extra lessons, and one school night lesson to model it.
• Do not soften the rule to preserve the relationship. A parent who believes the sister is legal will keep using her, and the student will arrive at the road test with hours that cannot be defended.

The plan has to be executable by a parent with no teaching background, in the dark, without a lesson plan in their head.

Structure it as repeatable routes, not skills.

• Three fixed loops of 20–25 minutes each: a lit arterial with signals, an unlit two-lane road, and a short highway segment. Same route twice, then rotate. Novelty at night is what overwhelms a novice; repetition is what builds the reference points.
• One objective per drive, written on the sheet: "high beams down within 500 feet of oncoming traffic," "scan the fog line when a car approaches," "reduce speed before the curve, not in it."
• A debrief line the parent fills in: what went well, one thing to repeat. This keeps the parent coaching instead of critiquing.

Make the logging defensible.

• Date, start and end time, weather, road type, supervising driver name and signature, and a note that the supervisor is 21+ with three years licensed. Hours that cannot be tied to a qualified supervisor are the hours that get thrown out.
• Target the night hours deliberately - they are a separate requirement, not a by-product of daytime driving.

The test of a good plan is whether the parent can run it on a Tuesday night without calling the school.

Record what is true, in the student's file, the same day.

• Write a dated note: the student reported practicing with a 20-year-old sibling; the instructor advised the family of the supervising-driver requirement; the family was told which hours cannot be counted. Note who was present for the conversation.
• The student's file should show only school-delivered instruction the school can document. Home practice hours the school did not witness are the family's to certify, and the school should not launder an invalid entry into its own paperwork.

What not to do:

• Do not enter the sister-supervised hours into the school's records as verified practice, even with a parent's verbal assurance.
• Do not adjust the student's night-hour count to keep her on schedule for a road test date. The date moves; the record does not.
• Do not handle it as a phone call only. A written follow-up protects the school if the family later disputes the delay.

Escalation: if the parent insists the hours count, the instructor refers the question to the school's designated official rather than arguing it personally, and documents that referral. The instructor's signature is the thing being relied on, so the instructor is the one who has to be able to defend it months later.