There is a difference between driver's education and traffic school. Driver's education is a course offered to those people who are getting their license for the first time. Traffic school is a class, usually four or eight hours, offered to current drivers that have recently broken a traffic law or were at fault in a vehicular accident. In many cases traffic school is attended on a voluntary basis, but it can also be court ordered by a judge depending on the severity of the offense.
If you have been cited with a moving violation that does not involve alcohol or drugs and have not been ordered to appear in court, you are usually eligible for traffic school. Many people choose to attend traffic school to avoid increasing insurance premiums or to remove the citation, or points, from their driving record. Many times, people who are cited for speeding, running red lights, or failure to yield are the most common attendees of traffic school.
Depending on your state and your driving record, you may or may not be able to use traffic school to remove the citation or points from your license. In order to be sure of your state's laws, you should check with your local Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). You can also read the back of your citation or ticket for information regarding traffic school in your area. In almost every state, you will be limited to attending traffic school not more than five times in your lifetime, unless ordered by a court.
Today, there are many private agencies that provide traffic school. Typically, these will only take one day of attendance and your certificate of completion will be given to you or shipped directly to the county in which you received the citation. Attendance in traffic school will also reduce the amount of your ticket in some states as well.
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M. Pearl (formerly M. Groh-Gordy) is a former high school and college teacher who has been a traffic school owner and instructor since 1994. Her company, InterActive! Traffic School Online currently serves traffic violators in 6 states.
Her column on automobile driving is published weekly in newspapers of the Los Angeles Newspaper Group and/or the online Motorways sections of 14 California publications.
