<p>My D turned 21 before she had time to come home and renew it and had a strange Driver License. They extended it until she came home but it has this weird paper thing on it and it was expired. </p>
<p>She used her school ID and was fine.</p>
<p>Shrinkrap-
Is there any chance you happened to have made a photocopy of her license before she left? Like if she had to deal with a small moving truck or something that required a copy of a drivers license? Thats what saved us in the recent round of “I can’t find my license- I am sure I left it in XXX’s car”. In our state you can order a replacement on line, which will only be mailed to your address of record, but you have to know the drivers license number. We ordered a new one, which came the other day, but then the friend whose care DS insisted the license was in found it… in his car. So now we have a back-up license 
</p>
<p>Did you/your daughter ever have to provide a photo ID to the university? Might they have a copy of a license or something on file??</p>
<p>When older s forgot he’d left his drivers license when he checked out pool balls/cues at a bar and we were in line at the airport, they just pulled him aside, did a thorough search, asked q’s and let him through. This was at the Denver airport.</p>
<p>The “I am under 18” might be the easiest strategy-- with the collee ID (can claim to be a young genius )</p>
<p>Also during this period of younger s’s recent missing license saga, we did scan a copy of his passport to him. Agree that getting a passport when she is home is a good idea.
Good luck!</p>
<p>TSA has a protocol for this - I went through it last fall. You fill out a form with basic info and show them whatever ID you have - I had nothing but credit and library cards. Then the TSA agent calls “TSA Central”, gives them your basic info, and the person at the other end starts feeding the agent random questions that only you can answer - I assume they are looking at all sorts of public data bases. My questions were make, model and color of car registered in my name, the name of my next door neighbors, and the clincher, “what is the name of the college or university in your neighborhood?” I live 2 blocks from a small LAC :)</p>
<p>It was painless but did take extra time.</p>
<p>Two years ago son was flying home out of DC in the big snow storm, got to the airport and realized that he did not have his driver’s license ( he had mailed it home for safekeeping!!) or his passport (it was sitting in the Italian Embassy waiting for a visa). TSA let him on the plane with his Library of Congress Reader’s card, even though it says right on the front “Not a government ID card”.</p>
<p>DS traveling on a college visit right now - has the new Passport Card as does not yet have his license. The Passport Card is same size as license and is an official government ID. Another option to have around…and maybe kept in a separate place just in case!</p>
<p>Our son went from Minnesota to Boston for an accepted students open house last weekend and lost his license after the TSA checkpoint at MSP airport. He talked to the TSA people about the flight home and they said his photo ID credit card and photo school ID should be fine. He was planning on going to Logan Airport early, but–like Oregonianmom, found his license in the book he was reading. Whew. Good luck!</p>
<p>We are going thru this right now as my D forgot to renew her license on xmas break before heading back to school. She sent a request to the DMV for an extension, but Calif. is taking up to 6 weeks right now to process license requests, and we have not been able to get any info on the phone. It’s nice to see she is not the only one in this situation. She is hoping that with her school ID and expired license, she will get thru security. It might be easier for her since the airport at her school is small and serves mostly college students- they seem to be a little more lax.</p>
<p>I agree with all of the suggestions above. On another note, what about people who never got their driver’s license for whatever reason? What would they use for ID?</p>
<p>
In some states, they can get a state photo ID that is not a driver’s license. Otherwise, they would have to get a passport.</p>
<p>Or a passport ID card. But you can only use a passport ID card to travel to Canada, Mexico, and the caribbean by road, rail, or boat. You can’t use them to fly internationally (you can use them to fly domestically).</p>
<p>I think that my daughter was able to use her learner’s permit. I figured that the TSA was more interested in the name, the face, and all the information matching then in the expiration date.</p>
<p>Shrinkwrap, My D was allowed to fly with only her college ID as identification. In one direction, it was no problem at all. In the other direction (she was flying to and from a job interview in another city by herself), they gave her flack because the school ID doesn’t have a date on it. Nevertheless, they allowed her on the plane. I go with the “get to the airport early” group.<br>
Perhaps it would not be a bad idea to microchip children. We could implant a GPS at the same time. Could be useful.</p>
<p>D was able to get them to believe she was under 18 by looking & acting quite young, flying with her older brother. She had totally forgotten her purse at her aunt’s house. She skated through security & had brother wait at the gate while we rushed back & got her purse for her. She met us where we had dropped her off with a huge smile. <argh!> Kids!</argh!></p>
<p>I agree that getting a rush passport could be a good thing, just so your kid would have one anyway. It IS tough to get a replacement license if the person is not physically present, but in HI you can, tho there is a delay (several weeks).</p>
<p>Have your D look through all the remaining IDs she has on-hand, particularly those with photos, so she can describe all of them when she talks with the airlines she plans to fly. Second the suggestion that she get to the airport VERY EARLY and expect thorough search.</p>
<p>Whenever my children travel on their own, I try to call right after the time they were due to be picked up or leave for the airport, and I ask “do you have your driver’s license?”. We also call them after they go through security at the airport, to ask the same question. I was heartened the other day when I heard the airport employee who was checking people’s IDs and boarding passes just before security tell every person, “remember to put away your ID now.”</p>
<p>One more thing that might be worth inquiring about is whether the state your child is currently in will issue a state ID. I know that HI does and probably most states do as well. Have your child research this & get a state ID, that SHOULD also work for flights. When your child comes home, also have your child get a state ID. We will try to have our kids do so as well.</p>
<p>You wonder how many IDs are lost how often. It is mind boggling how many times we have to show these things and how easy they are to misplace! Have rarely heard anyone remind us to put our IDs away. I don’t call our kids to remind them to put their things away when they fly–they tend not to answer their phones when they are traveling anyway & it would just add more complexity.</p>
<p>A related question–if a student is traveling by himself and IS under eighteen, is he required to show a photo ID? S will only be 17 his entire freshman year and doesn’t have a driver’s license yet (and won’t be able to get one until Christmas break). He does have a passport he was planning on using, but is that even necessary? I can’t find any info on what is required for an underage student flying alone. Thanks.</p>
<p>When my son flew alone at 17, he didn’t have show any ID. He did bring his HS ID along, but the TSA agent said he didn’t need it since he was under 18. </p>
<p>Shrinkrap, let us know how it all turns out. I’m sure it will be fine, but keep humming the song about Charlie and the MTA while I read this thread.</p>
<p>All good ideas! Thanks. I did suggest she look into getting a NC state ID, and she was told they are only for folks “residing” there. I can’t recall exactly the word they used, but it’s in my first post. Relatedly, I wondered how it was determined where someone “resided”. </p>
<p>This comes up a lot in the “what about jury duty?” threads. </p>
<p>My D lives in a school owned apartment in NC this year, and lives in NC about 8 months out of a year, maybe more this year. She is registered to vote ther. Her license and state taxes are in California, although she hopes to work in NC this summer. She has been called to jury duty here in California.</p>
<p>I should also mention she is 21 years old.</p>
<p>It won’t do Shrinkrap’s D any good, but my S managed to lose his passport–or have it stolen–after getting through airport security in Paris on his way home from a term abroad. He discovered that he didn’t have it after getting off the plane for a layover in Iceland. He had to be interviewed by a US consular official to be allowed back on the plane and into the country. Then when he arrived in Boston, it turned out that the airline had lost his bag. So he arrived home with nothing but his violin and laptop. His bag reappeared a few days later, but the passport never did, which leads us to believe that it was stolen. (I’m sure a passport for an American college-age male is highly marketable. 
)</p>
<p>I would have her to go NC place to try to get state ID & tell them she RESIDES there and wants one. It always seems good to have SOME form of government ID–a state ID, a driver’s permit with a photo, or SOMETHING. Our kids always had a permit with photo that looks very similar to a driver’s license. When it was going to expire, had S take & pass the road test, just so he’d have a good ID. </p>
<p>Even if the kid is under 18, seems a good idea to have a valid state ID.</p>