The statute that once allowed for 12-hour (extended) traffic school within 18-months of completing 8-hour traffic school will expire as of July 1, 2011. This means that drivers will no longer be eligible for traffic school once they have completed the 8-hour course within 18-months.
Drivers granted 12-hour traffic school before July 1, 2011 must have it completed before June 30, 2011 in order to avoid getting an extra point on your driving record.
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Effective 7/01/11, the provision for a traffic school licensed as a DMV Traffic Violator School (TVS) to provide more than an 8 hour program (usually referred to as Level II) was rescinded. A TVS can not provide a traffic related program over the eight hours and would be in violation with its DMV licensing contract.
In San Diego County, Impact Programs has offered a 16-hour behavioral Repeat Offender Traffic Program for the last eleven years. From 1986 until eleven years ago, it offered a 12-hour behavioral Traffic Level II. Criminal Operations and the Traffic Division of the SDSC required it to be expanded to 16 hours as the Supreme Court of California Rules of the Court and DMV Vehicle Code required a minimum of 12 hours of instruction (excluding lunch, admin, even breaks).
DMV has determined that Impact’s 16 hour Repeat Offender Traffic Program is “behavioral” and is not subject to AB 2499 and the VC. It will continue to be a serious option for the judge or commissioner and the violation can be dismissed as ‘judicial discretion’. Obviously, the violation will not be “confidential” as that is only available for a TVS 8 hour once every eighteen months.
Until approximately twelve months ago, San Diego Superior Court did not allow DMV licensed Traffic Violator Schools to offer a 12 hour program. There are now several TVS providing the 12 hour in the county. For ticket dates prior to 7/01/11, the court is still allowing the 12 hour program. Note that this is not a “minimum of 12 hours of instruction” per the Rules of the Court and the Vehicle Code. For ticket dates of 7/01/11 or after, the SDSC will not allow a DMV licensed Traffic Violator School to provide a program longer than the 8 hours.
The “lineal” 12 hour programs (not minimum of 12 hours of instruction) in other counties over the past approximately eleven years were in violation of the Rules of the Court and the DMV Vehicle Code as the VC only allowed a Traffic Violator School to provide a longer program if it was a minimum of 12 hours of instruction (excluding admin, breaks, lunches, etc..)
In addition, Traffic Violator Schools have (and continue) advertised “certified”, “approved”, or “authorized” DMV 12 hour programs. Per the DMV, there were only a couple of organizations approved many years ago for under age 18 drivers. The past problem was (and will be) compliance monitoring.