How does the course work?
- Register: You can create an account, pay, and have access to your course within just a few minutes. First you will choose your reason for taking the course from the following:
- BDI Election – you chose to take the course for a ticket to keep points off your record.
- Court Ordered – a Florida court has required you to complete the course
- DHSMV Ordered – the Florida DHSMV has required you to complete the course to prevent a license suspension or to get your license back if already suspended. Examples include:
- Racing on a highway
- Reckless driving
- Passing a stopped school bus
- Running a red light or other traffic control device
- Traffic Collision Avoidance Course (TCAC) – the Florida DHSMV required you to complete the course because you were involved in one or more traffic crashes.
- Complete the Course: The State of Florida requires that a BDI course be four hours in length. Our course consists of six units, which contain text, videos, and animations. You can log in and out of your course as needed and the course is available 24 hours a day / 7 days a week from any internet-enabled device (PC, laptop, tablet, or smartphone).
- Pass the Unit Quizzes: There is a short multiple choice quiz at the end of each unit that you must pass in order to move to the next unit and ultimately complete the course. Do not worry! You will receive unlimited attempts to pass each unit quiz and you have the option to go back and review the unit material after each attempt if needed.
- Completion Certificate: By default, upon successful course completion, a paper certificate will be mailed to the address provided, unless you choose the optional PDF certificate download upgrade. The PDF certificate is available immediately upon completion.Mailed certificates are processed and sent out at 3PM EST each business day (Monday through Friday, excluding holidays). Completions on weekends or after 3PM EST on a business day will be mailed out the following business day.
- Completion Reporting: All completions are reported electronically to the Florida DHSMV. This is especially important for users who have been ordered by the DHSMV to complete the course because that is how the state is notified of your completion.IMPORTANT: We DO NOT report completions to any court / county. Some courts may look up completions in the DHSMV system, but if you need to turn your certificate in to a court, you must follow the instructions provided by them to ensure that it is received and you get the proper credit.
Reasons to take a Florida Traffic School course?
Dismiss Points – You chose to complete a BDI course to keep the points from a current ticket off your record.
Court Order – You were required by a court to complete the course for a ticket.
DHSMV Order – You were required by the FL DHSMV to keep your license or to get your license back.
Insurance Discount – You want to save money on your auto insurance.
Yes! Our online Florida Traffic School course is approved by the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (DHSMV) as a Basic Driver Improvement (BDI) program and Traffic Collision Avoidance Course (TCAC) for the following:
- You have a ticket and chose to complete a BDI course to keep the associated points off your Florida driving record.
- A court and/or county has required you to complete a BDI course due to a ticket or other circumstances.
- The Florida DHSMV has required you to complete a 4-hour Basic Driver Improvement course for one of the following:
- Street racing
- Reckless driving
- Passing a stopped school bus
- Running a red light
- The Florida DHSMV has required you to complete a Traffic Collision Avoidance Course (TCAC) due to at least one of the following:
- Two crashes in a two-year period
- A crash with at least $500 in property damage
- A crash involving one or more injuries
- Your auto insurance company gives discounts for completing a Florida traffic school / BDI course.
Completing a Florida Traffic School course online provides flexibility and convenience that is tough to beat.
The course is accessible from any internet-enabled device (smartphone, tablet, PC, or laptop) anytime (24 hours a day / 7 days a week). You can access the course from anywhere you have internet access (ex. home, office, coffee shop, etc.), which provides unmatched comfort. Log in and out as much or as little as your schedule requires and our system will save your progress.
Length: 4 hours
Course Units: 6
As a state-approved course, it must follow specific regulations set by the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (DHSMV), which include:
Content Verification: The course will test whether you are reading, watching, and understanding the course material by requiring you to pass a short multiple-choice quiz at the end of each unit. There is no final exam.
Identity Verification: We are required to verify that the person who registered is the person taking the course. We do that by having you answer ten identity validation questions during the course registration process, for which you must provide the same answer again at ten random points in the course. State regulations require that you answer at least 70% of the ID questions correctly to successfully complete the course.
Completion Certificate: You will receive a certificate of completion when you pass the course. The certificate will be sent via US mail by default, unless you choose to purchase the optional downloadable PDF upgrade, which provides a certificate for immediate download. Mailed certificates are processed at 3PM EST on each business day (Monday-Friday, excluding holidays). If you finish after 3PM on a weekday or on a weekend, your certificate will be mailed out on the following business day. You should receive your certificate within 5-7 business days following completion.
State Reporting: Your successful course completion is reported electronically to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (DHSMV) immediately after you pass. IMPORTANT: We DO NOT report your course completion to any Florida court or county, or to your insurance company. If you have been ordered to take the course by a court / county, you must follow the instructions they have provided to properly notify them of your course completion (email, upload via website, mail, etc.).
State Approved –We take pride in the fact that our Florida Traffic School course is approved by the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (DHSMV) as a Basic Driver Improvement course (BDI) course. This approval gives you the peace of mind that you are completing a course that will be accepted by the court or state.
Trusted History – Our company has proudly offered driving safety related courses across the US and Florida for over 45 years. Superior Service –If you need support, we have live US-based reps ready to help via phone or email between 10AM and 6PM EST Monday through Friday, excluding holidays.
Updated and Engaging Content: We have updated course videos and content that is research proven effective at improving your driving skills and lowering the probability of getting future tickets or having a crash.
The registration process for the course requires and accepts any major debit or credit card via the secure online payment page. For your security, we DO NOT save or store any payment information, and the payment process is fully encrypted.
When you get a ticket in Florida, typically the court / county will give you the option to take a state approved 4-hour Florida Basic Driver Improvement (BDI) course (a.k.a. Florida traffic school) to keep the points from the ticket off your driving record.
IMPORTANT: DO NOT start or complete the BDI course without first notifying and getting permission from the court. Not every driver and ticket are course eligible. If eligible, the court will grant you permission to take the course, typically collect a court fee, and give you a deadline date to turn in the course completion certificate.
It is important when registering that you choose the correct reason for taking the course. If you chose to take the course and were not required to take the course by a court or by DHSMV, you will choose the option “BDI election”. You will also be required to enter your seven character alpha-numeric Florida citation number and the name of the county in which you received your citation.
When you successfully pass the course, your completion will be electronically reported to the Florida DHSMV immediately and we will provide your certificate either via US mail or PDF download, depending on what you chose at registration. We DO NOT report completions to the court or county. If the court requires a copy of your certificate, it is your responsibility to follow the instructions given to you by the court or county handling your ticket to ensure that they receive proof of completion, so that the points from the ticket do not go on your driving record. We also recommend following up with the court to make sure all requirements have been met.
Many people incorrectly choose “court ordered” as their reason for taking the course because they confuse it with electing to take the course. Just because you are turning in your course certificate to a court does not mean that you are court ordered.
Course election is when you choose the option of taking traffic school through the court after a ticket to keep the points off your record instead of just paying the fine. Having a court order means that the court is requiring completion of the course, and typically involves facing further penalties such as license suspension for failure to comply.
Another way to know if you are court ordered is that you will have been given a court case / court order number. A court case number should be 20 alpha-numeric characters long and has five sections separated by dashes (example: 48-2024-CT-000001-OAXXXX). The course registration will require that you enter the county that is ordering your course completion and the court case number (a.k.a. court order number) so that it will display on your certificate and be accepted when you turn it in. TicketSchool.com DOES NOT report completions to the courts. We electronically report the completion to the Florida DHSMV, but it is your responsibility to get your certificate of completion and turn that in via the instructions provided by the court handling your case.
The State of Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (DHSMV) can require a driver to complete a 4-hour Basic Driver Improvement course (BDI) (a.k.a. Florida Traffic School course) in numerous circumstances to prevent license suspension or in some cases to reinstate an already suspended license. Typically, you will know that you have a DHSMV order because you will be sent a letter notifying you of the course requirement and penalty for failure to comply. Being ticketed for any of the following typically carries a requirement for completion of BDI:
- Street racing
- Reckless driving
- Passing a stopped school bus
- Running a red light
You can also be DHSMV ordered to complete a Traffic Collision Avoidance Course (TCAC), which is another name for the Florida 4-hour Basic Driver Improvement (BDI) course. If this applies to you, it is important that you choose TCAC as your reason for taking the course so that your completion is reported correctly and you get the proper credit upon successful completion. TCAC is typically required for the following:
- 2 crashes in a two-year period
- A crash with at least $500 in property damage
- A crash involving one or more injuries
TicketSchool.com electronically reports all completions to the Florida DHSMV system. This is most important for DHSMV ordered users since that is how the state is notified of your course completion. While you will still receive a course completion certificate after passing, it is not required for DHSMV ordered users since the electronic reporting is how the State of Florida is notified. IMPORTANT: We highly recommend that after completion you contact the DHSMV, a local driver license office, or county tax collector’s office to double check that your completion is showing on your record and that nothing else is required to prevent license suspension.
If you aren’t completely satisfied, our company offers a full 30-day money back guarantee. The only exclusions to this policy are if you have already successfully completed the course, a completion certificate has been issued to you, or you have been disqualified for failure of the course security questions.