Idaho Defensive Driving: Points, Programs and Your Ticket

First, what a course cannot do

There is no statewide program in Idaho that makes a ticket go away. IDAPA 39.02.71 says it directly: neither a defensive driving class nor a traffic safety education program removes a conviction from your record.

Both tools work on points instead. The class lowers your total. The city program stops a qualifying infraction from getting points at all and from being treated as a moving violation when insurers set rates. For most speeding tickets, that is the result drivers really want.

Understanding the point system

ITD gives each moving violation conviction between 1 and 4 points, depending on the risk of injury or damage. Going 16 mph or more over the limit, or speeding in a work zone, is worth 4; other speeding is 3. A conviction under state law or city ordinance that is not on the list gets 3, unless the law calls for a different sanction.

Got several tickets from one stop? ITD counts just the single conviction worth the most. Phone tickets under Idaho Code 49-1401A start gently: zero points for a first offense, three for each one after.

• Tailgating: 3 points
• Not stopping for a school bus: 4 points
• Railroad crossing violations: 4 points
• Inattentive driving: 3 points

If your points are climbing

ITD watches three rolling windows, each measured separately, and suspends when you cross any of the lines set in IDAPA 39.02.71.

Timing is everything. A class finished after ITD has already suspended you for points does not cancel the suspension, so act when you are getting close, not after the letter comes.

• 12 points or more within 12 months: suspended 30 days
• 18 points or more within 24 months: suspended 90 days
• 24 points or more within 36 months: suspended 6 months

Taking the 3 point class

Finishing an approved defensive driving class removes 3 points from your Idaho total under IDAPA 39.02.71. The reduction comes off the overall count, not off a particular ticket, and the conviction stays listed.

You get one every three years, counted from the day you completed either a class or a city program. Take the class with zero points on your record and the benefit is gone; there is no saving it for later.

Choosing a course Idaho will accept

Idaho uses "accident prevention course" and "defensive driving class" for the same thing. It must last at least 6 hours, delivered in a classroom, by field driving, online, or any mix.

Instructors must be certified, either by the Idaho Department of Education in driver and traffic safety education, or through AARP, AAA, the National Safety Council or another program ITD treats as equal. Those three national organizations aside, every course outline goes to ITD for approval, and a provider that puts students on the road must prove it is insured.

ITD keeps its list of approved providers on the Driver Records and Suspensions page and says tuition, set by each provider, runs about $18 to $60, sometimes plus a certificate fee. Settle any open citation before finishing, because ITD will not approve the reduction while a citation is unpaid. Completion certificates can be emailed to [email protected].

If a city officer wrote your ticket

Under Idaho Code 50-336, a city may adopt by ordinance a traffic safety education program for drivers a city officer cites for a moving violation with no collision. You must choose it when the ticket is written and then finish within 45 days. Do that, and the infraction gets no points and is not treated as a moving violation for insurance.

The program can cost no more than $25, paid to the city on top of the fine and court costs. Choose it but miss the 45 days, and you lose the benefit.

• CDL holders, and anyone driving a commercial vehicle, cannot use it
• Not available if you used it, or a 3 point class, in the past three years
• Only for infraction tickets written by a city officer in a city that has adopted a program

If you are 55 or older

This is one of the few discounts written into Idaho law. Under Idaho Code 41-2515, any company selling car insurance here must cut the premium by an appropriate amount on three coverages (liability, collision and medical payments) when the main driver on the policy is at least 55 and has finished an approved accident prevention course. Show the certificate the course sponsor gives you.

The discount runs three years; retake an approved course each cycle to keep it. Insurers may require no at-fault crashes and no moving violation convictions in that period. It does not apply if a court or agency ordered the course because of a violation, and an insurer already giving a comparable discount does not have to stack both.

Paying or fighting the ticket itself

Ticket amounts come from a statewide schedule, not the officer. The Idaho Supreme Court's schedule effective July 1, 2025 puts the total (penalty plus costs) at $90 for most moving infractions, including speeding by 15 mph or less, and at $155 for 16 or more over. Paying before the appearance date, whether online, by post or at the clerk's counter, counts as admitting the charge. Short on cash? Clerks can set up a deferred payment arrangement.

Contesting means going to the clerk before that date and pleading not guilty; you will get a trial, and the prosecution must prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt. Ignore the date entirely and a default judgment arrives, points and all. One relief: since July 1, 2018, Idaho Code 49-328 has barred license suspension just for not paying an infraction, though collection efforts can still follow.

Special cases: CDL holders and teens

Commercial drivers are boxed in by federal rules that stop Idaho from hiding or diverting their convictions, and that is exactly why city programs exclude them. Another federal rule, 49 CFR 383.31, requires a CDL holder to give the employer written notice within 30 days of any traffic conviction except parking, no matter what vehicle was involved.

A CDL holder may still take an approved class for the 3 point reduction on the Idaho total, but employers and the federal commercial record still see the conviction. Teens on a supervised instruction permit have their own rule: any traffic conviction before 17 cancels the permit, and no class changes that. In every case, a missed payment deadline causes more trouble than the points do.