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If you have received a traffic citation, you may be eligible to take traffic school or a defensive driving course. Taking one of these can help reduce the number of points on your license. This can help to lower your insurance rates, which may increase due to the ticket, and prevent your license from being suspended if you receive too many tickets. Each state has different requirements as to when and if you can participate in traffic school or a defensive driving course. Here is some information about traffic school eligibility in Arizona, California, Florida, Kentucky and New York.
Arizona
In Arizona, you can participate in a defensive driving course as long as you have not participated for a ticket issued in the past 12 months or sooner. The date is based on the issuance of the ticket for which you are taking the course, not the date in which you took the course. Also, if the ticket was issued because you were involved in a serious crash or fatal accident, you may not be eligible.
California
In California, you can complete traffic school once every 18 months for traffic infractions. This reduces one violation. If you were cited for multiple violations, only one can be removed with traffic school. Also, you must have been in a non-commercial vehicle to be eligible and your driver’s license must be valid. If you were cited for not having a valid license, in addition to other traffic infractions, you are not eligible for traffic school in the state of California.
Florida
In Florida, you can elect to attend traffic school if you were cited for a non-criminal moving violation using a regular driver’s license. If you hold a commercial driver’s license, you cannot attend this type of program. In Florida, you can attend traffic school or driver improvement courses once every 12 months to eliminate points caused by a ticket. However, you can only attend five times during your lifetime. As such, you must use your limited number of courses wisely. If you have participated in traffic school in other states prior to moving to Florida, it does not count against the cap. The five times only applies to Florida and your Florida driver’s license.
New York
In New York, you can participate in a Point & Insurance Reduction Program or (PIRP) to reduce points on your driving record and decrease your insurance. You can participate in PIRP once every three years. However, the program only reduces up to four points from your driving record that were present within the 18 months prior to you taking the course. But participating once every three years earns you a 10 percent reduction in your insurance premiums.
Kentucky
In Kentucky, you can participate in traffic school once every 12 months for minor traffic infractions. Major traffic infractions or criminal traffic infractions are not eligible. This removes one infraction from your driving record. To be eligible, you must not be under license suspension and must have a valid license. Non-licensed and out of state drivers are not eligible to participate in driving school in Kentucky.
Most schools offer traffic school or defensive driving courses to help you reduce minor traffic tickets from your driving record. However, the requirements for this vary from state to state. If you have received a traffic ticket, check with your state to find out what programs you may qualify for to help get the ticket removed from your record. This can help keep your insurance rates as low as possible.
