Bringing Down Your Pennsylvania Point Total

What everyday tickets cost in points

Under the point schedule PennDOT issued in March 2024, violations carry between 2 and 5 points. The faster you were going, the more a speeding ticket costs, and exceeding the work zone limit by 11 or more also brings a 15 day suspension.

A few offenses pair points with a suspension. Passing a school bus that has its red lights flashing costs 5 points and 60 days. Going around a lowered railroad gate costs 4 points and 30 days.

• Speeding: 2 points when 6 to 10 mph over the limit
• Speeding: 3 points for 11 to 15 over, 4 points for 16 to 25 over, 5 points for 26 to 30 over
• Speeding at 31 or more over: 5 points and a hearing with PennDOT
• 3 points each: running a red light or a stop sign, tailgating, careless driving, an illegal U-turn
• 2 points: failing to yield to someone in a crosswalk
• Leaving the scene of a property damage crash: 4 points

If you reach 6

Your first trip to 6 brings a letter from PennDOT with two choices and a 30 day deadline. Pass the special written exam and 2 points come off; finish Driver Improvement School and 4 come off. Do neither in time and you are suspended until you complete one.

Climbing back to 6 after dropping below it is treated more seriously. Now the school is mandatory along with a departmental hearing, and the hearing examiner can add a road exam or a suspension, up to 15 days the second time and up to 30 days for any after that. Satisfying all of it earns a 2 point reduction.

Worked example: you are at 6 for the first time and choose the school, dropping to 2. A clean year takes off the last 2. Stay at zero for another 12 months and any future points count as a first accumulation again, with the full 4 point school credit available.

What Driver Improvement School involves

Set aside one day for two three-hour sessions, taken by video or at a Driver License Center. PennDOT names 10 locations: Bridgeville, Butler, Chambersburg, Erie, Harrisburg, Jeannette, Norristown, State College, Wilkes-Barre and York. Passing requires full participation and at least 80% on a multiple choice exam at the end.

Enrollment is by PennDOT only, after a notice that qualifies you, and there are no Sunday or Monday classes. Skip it or fail and a suspension letter follows, typically giving you around 42 days before it takes effect.

If you reach 11

Eleven points means a suspension with no hearing first. The math is per point: 5 days each for a first suspension, 10 each for a second, 15 each for a third, and a full year flat for any after that. So 12 points the first time equals 60 days.

Once restored, your record resets to 5 points no matter how high it had climbed, with one exception: a 15 day suspension imposed after a second accumulation hearing. Surrender the license by the start date and pay the restoration fee to get it back.

If the driver is a teen

Drivers younger than 18 have a lower trigger. Reaching 6 points, or a single conviction for going 26 or more over, suspends a junior license for 90 days, and any repeat brings 120. Those penalties sit on top of the adult point steps.

Any conviction also delays the DL-59 path to a full license until your teen has a clean 12 months, and permanently drops the junior passenger limit back to one for the rest of the junior period.

How to check your own record

PennDOT's website lets you download your own 3 year or 10 year record as a PDF. By mail, use Form DL-503; your own record needs no notary. According to the September 2025 version of the form, a 3 year record costs $15 and a certified one $47, paid by check or money order.

Your history will show convictions, departmental actions and crashes, but no point numbers, so match each line to the schedule yourself. Certified copies can be ordered only by mail or in person.

What will not lower your points

Commercial online defensive driving courses remove nothing, and neither does the mature driver course, which affects insurance only. The school also earns no credit when it was ordered because of a 31 mph or more speeding conviction.

Paul Miller's Law, which has carried a $50 fine for hand-held phone use since June 5, 2026, does not appear on the March 2024 point schedule. An ignored ticket adds no points by itself, but the court can tell PennDOT, and that can end in a suspension, so answer on time.