Texas Traffic School, From Citation to Dismissal

Before you pay: why this is a right

If you meet the conditions, the judge does not get a vote. The criminal procedure code (Article 45A.352) directs the judge to require the course, and Article 45A.356 directs the court to dismiss when your paperwork arrives on time. The ticket ought to carry a printed notice of the right; if yours does not, Article 45A.354 keeps the right alive until notice is given or the case closes.

After dismissal, the charge cannot appear on your driving record or be used for anything. Texas insurers also cannot drop you or raise your rate because of the course or the dismissal. Since Texas no longer runs a points system, that clean record is the whole payoff.

Do you qualify? The details

If you are 25 or older, the course covers rules-of-the-road offenses (Subtitle C of Transportation Code Title 7), plus disobeying barricades and warning signs (Section 472.022) and the matching offense for drivers under 17 under Section 729.001. Under 25, every moving violation heard by those two court types qualifies.

Your license must be Texas-issued, or you must be on active duty or the spouse or dependent child of someone who is. Proof of insurance is required, and no dismissal course may have been finished in the year leading up to the offense date. The court verifies that last point using the Type 3A record and your affidavit.

Example: a 23 year old and a 40 year old each get a ticket for 15 over in a municipal court. With no CDL, proof of insurance and no course in the prior year, both qualify. At 25 over, neither would.

• Out: anyone who holds a CDL today or held one on the offense date
• Out: speeds of 95 or higher, or a margin of 25 or more over the posted limit
• No automatic right: going around a stopped school bus, fleeing a crash scene or not giving information after one, serious traffic violations, and work zone offenses where fines double

If you are from another state or drive commercially

Drivers licensed in another state, unless they belong to an active-duty military family, do not get the course option under Chapter 45A. Ask the court about deferred disposition instead. Military family members without a Texas license sign one more affidavit confirming no out-of-state course during the past year.

CDL holders are excluded even when the ticket came in a personal car. Federal rules require reporting convictions to an employer within 30 days, so commercial drivers often speak to a lawyer before entering any plea.

What it costs, and who gets paid

You will pay two parties. The court takes the usual costs for the offense and may tack on as much as $10 as a handling charge for your request, which it keeps even if you never take the class. The provider bills you on its own, and Education Code Section 1001.352 sets $25 as the lowest price any driving safety course can charge.

Senate Bill 296, effective September 1, 2025, lets one class clear several eligible charges from a single stop, with the court free to charge up to $10 per charge. If your request comes after the answer date and the judge allows the course anyway under Article 45A.352(c), Article 45A.358(a)(2) permits a fine as high as the offense allows instead.

After the plea: the 90 day package

Once you plead, the court enters judgment, defers it and starts a 90 day clock. Before it runs out, the court needs three things: the uniform completion certificate, your Type 3A showing no course in the prior year (skipped if the judge gets it), and a sworn statement that no other course was under way when you asked for this one.

Providers have up to 15 working days by statute to deliver your certificate, and TDLR says 14 days is typical, so do not finish on day 89. A missing certificate, or one with a provider error, can be replaced free within 30 days according to TDLR. Running late? Article 45A.355 lets the court extend the time for good cause, but ask before day 90.

If you missed the date or do not qualify

Your guaranteed right expires with the answer date. Even so, subsection (c) of Article 45A.352 leaves the judge free to permit a course until the case is closed. Call the court the moment you realize you are late.

The other common path is deferred disposition. Article 45A.302 lets the judge pause the case as long as 180 days and then drop it if you comply with the terms. When the driver is under 25 and the charge is a moving violation, Article 45A.304 adds a driving safety course to those terms automatically, and provisional license holders also retake the DPS road test, paying $10.