South Carolina Traffic School and the Traffic Education Program

Start here: why there is no classic traffic school

In some states a judge can accept a class in exchange for keeping a ticket off your record. South Carolina gives that role to the prosecutor instead. Under Title 17, Chapter 22, Article 3, each circuit solicitor operates a Traffic Education Program. The separate defensive driving course in Section 56-1-770 does nothing until after you are convicted, when it subtracts four points.

Forget hunting for a court-approved online class. Ask instead whether the solicitor will accept you into the program, and, failing that, whether a point reduction course down the road is worth it.

Before you apply: do you qualify?

Two statutes set the basic rules. Section 17-22-310 limits the program to fine-only traffic offenses carrying four points or fewer and bars any offense that resulted in a death or a serious injury. Section 17-22-320 then requires that you have no significant history of traffic violations and limits everyone to a single use, tracked statewide by the Commission on Prosecution Coordination.

Individual circuits can be stricter. In the First Circuit, a driver who already carries more than four points is refused. And any charge that could mean jail, driving under suspension or DUI for instance, is by definition not a fine-only offense, so it never qualifies.

A quick example: a ticket for 18 mph over is four points and fine-only, so it can qualify if your record is clean. A ticket for 27 over is six points, and the program is closed to you.

If you hold a CDL

Under federal rule 49 CFR 384.226, no state may hide, defer or divert a traffic conviction for a driver who holds a CDL or a commercial learner's permit, whatever they were driving, with exceptions only for parking, weight and defect violations. Solicitors' offices therefore refuse CDL holders, even for a ticket written in the family car.

For a CDL holder, the realistic paths are contesting the ticket or accepting the conviction and managing the points. Federal rules also require CDL holders to tell their employer about a conviction within 30 days.

What the program costs

Under Section 17-22-350 you pay a $140 application fee (no refunds, no reductions) and a participation fee that can be as much as $140, which is why $280 is the usual total. The class itself is normally a separate payment to the provider your circuit approves.

Money cannot keep you out. The statute says no one is refused for inability to pay, and both fees are waived for anyone found unable to pay. If cost is the problem, ask the program coordinator about the waiver process rather than paying the ticket by default.

How the steps differ by circuit

Each of the state's 16 judicial circuits writes its own procedure. Two examples show the range. The First Circuit wants you in court on your scheduled date to ask for a referral; after that comes an enrollment meeting where you bring photo ID, your Social Security card and the ticket papers. The 16th Circuit works by application: you apply, sit through an orientation and have 120 days to finish, and it specifically warns against buying the online class before your acceptance.

With that much variation, call the solicitor's office the day you get the ticket. Ask whether your court date will be continued while you finish, so you are not recorded as a no-show.

If the program is not an option

Without the program, you have two choices: fight the ticket with a not guilty plea in magistrate or municipal court, or take the conviction. If a magistrate convicts you, you may appeal to circuit court within ten days of sentencing under Section 18-3-30, and having paid the fine already does not stop you.

After a conviction posts points, there is still the four point course: eight hours, either the National Safety Council's Defensive Driving Course or one SCDMV approves as equivalent, usable once every three years. It leaves the conviction in place but can keep your total below the 12 point suspension mark.