Florida Ticket Options: Electing Basic Driver Improvement (BDI) School

The decision in front of you: pay the ticket or elect school

Paying a Florida ticket without electing school means the points land on your record. Electing BDI, which section 318.14(9) allows, swaps the court date for a classroom or online course. Once you complete it, the court has to withhold adjudication, you pay 18 percent less, and no points under section 322.27 attach.

Under section 318.14(11), withholding adjudication is legally different from convicting you. The ticket itself stays visible on your driving history, marked as resolved through school, but it does not count against you the way a conviction would. That is why we describe Florida as a state where traffic school takes the sting out of the ticket.

Worked example: you get a 12 mph over speeding ticket in Orlando and have not used school in the past year. Paying it puts 3 points on your record. Electing BDI within 30 days costs you 4 hours of class and the course fee, keeps the 3 points off and reduces the civil penalty by 18 percent.

Before you elect: who is shut out

CDL holders and anyone on a commercial learner's permit cannot elect, and it makes no difference that you were in your own car at the time. The statute also lists excluded offenses, including speeding 30 mph or more above the posted limit.

St. Johns County's clerk also tells drivers on its election form that a ticket from a crash where someone was seriously hurt or killed is ineligible. Criminal traffic charges such as DUI never enter the civil infraction process at all.

• Holders of a commercial license or commercial learner's permit
• Speeding at 30 mph or more over the limit
• Anyone who elected school within the past 12 months
• Anyone who has used all 8 lifetime elections
• Crashes with serious bodily injury or death, according to clerk guidance

Within 30 days: paying and electing on time

Section 318.14(4) starts a 30-day clock on the day the ticket is written. In that time you either pay, set up a payment plan or choose a different option. Your school election with the clerk has to happen inside that same window.

FLHSMV describes it as two jobs inside those 30 days: let the court know you are choosing school, and pay the lowered fine and fees. Skip the payment and the license is suspended for nonpayment. Skip the course deadline and it is suspended for nonattendance.

Taking the course: length, price and online options

In St. Johns County's description, the course that qualifies is BDI: 4 hours, approved by FLHSMV. Section 318.1451 allows online and other technology-based versions, though only providers cleared to teach statewide can offer them.

Every school tacks a $2.50 state assessment onto its own price, and prices vary from provider to provider, so check a few on the approved list.

After the course: finishing and proving it

Completion deadlines are set county by county. In St. Johns County you get 60 days to finish and file. Go past that and the clerk still counts your election, then enters adjudication and the points and bills you for the discount you received, with $23 added as a late fee and $18 as a service fee. Your county's terms may differ, so ask.

The school notifies FLHSMV online, typically 1 to 3 days after you finish. FLHSMV is clear that the driver, not the school, answers for satisfying the court's reporting rules and for proving the fine was paid.

If you skip school: how Florida points add up

Section 322.27 does the scoring. A speed up to 15 mph above the limit is 3 points; 16 mph or more above is 4. A red light runner gets 4. Speeding that causes a crash is the heavy one at 6. Most remaining moving violations score 3. Tickets mailed from red-light or school bus cameras score nothing.

Once points pile up, FLHSMV can take the license away for a while. The thresholds below are the totals that let the department act, and the time shown is the longest suspension it can impose.

• 12 points inside a year: a suspension of 30 days at most
• 18 points inside a year and a half: as long as 3 months
• 24 points inside 3 years: as long as a year

When the course is not your choice: convictions that require it

A handful of convictions bring a course whether you wanted one or not, under section 322.0261: reckless driving, racing, illegally passing a school bus that has stopped, and blowing through a red light or other traffic signal. Once FLHSMV sends notice you have 90 days. Until you complete it, the license is canceled.

When a judge withholds adjudication on the signal, racing or reckless ticket, the course drops away unless the court decides the facts call for it anyway. The school bus ticket is the exception: withheld or not, the course is still owed.

When the course is not your choice: crashes and suspensions

The same section sends drivers to a course after a conviction linked to a crash where someone died or had to be taken to hospital, and after a second crash inside 2 years that caused $500 or more of property damage. Let the 90 days lapse and the license stays canceled until you finish.

Three crashes in 36 months brings a heavier version: in-car instruction plus an evaluation of your driving. Separately, section 322.291 says a point-system suspension cannot be lifted until you prove you have signed up for advanced driver improvement.

If the ticket came from another state, or involved a phone

Other states report your tickets to Florida, and any offense that scores under section 322.27 gets posted. According to FLHSMV, no school or program in Florida can take those points back off, so BDI is no use for a ticket from Georgia or Alabama.

Phones have their own track. If it is your first ticket for holding a wireless device while driving through an active work zone, a school crossing or a school zone, section 316.306 lets you take a state-approved wireless device safety program in place of the usual penalty. The clerk has discretion to waive the fine and costs; waiving the points is mandatory.

After the ticket: insurance discounts worth asking about

Drivers 55 and up have a guaranteed discount. Section 627.0652 makes insurers cut collision, PIP and liability rates after the insured finishes an accident prevention course approved by FLHSMV. It lasts 3 years, though a moving violation or a crash you caused can end it early.

Younger drivers rely on section 627.06501, which only permits insurers to take as much as 10 percent off for 3 years after a state-approved driver improvement course. Phone your insurer to see which certificate it honors before signing up.