No, you cannot go to traffic school to remove an old ticket from your driving record. Traffic school is intended only for current citations that have not yet appeared on your driving record.

Purpose of Traffic School

From the standpoint of the DMV, the purpose of traffic school is to reconcile a mistake you’ve made while driving by getting further driver’s education. The state believes that continued driver’s education will help reduce the number of traffic violations. From your standpoint, the purpose of traffic school is to remove points from your driving record and avoid rising insurance rates.

Traffic school is offered by the DMV when you receive a new citation. Not all citations are eligible for traffic school, but basic moving violations and minor speeding tickets qualify. If you choose to enroll in traffic school, you’ll have a short window of time to enroll, after which you will not be able to attend traffic school. Once the time limitation has passed, and certainly once your ticket appears on your driving record, you will not be able to attend traffic school.

Points and Insurance

Keep in mind, while it would be nice to remove old tickets from your driving record to reduce your points total, it really wouldn’t do you any good with your insurance company anyway. The purpose of traffic school is to remove the citation before it gets posted to your driving record, not after. So even if you were able to attend traffic school to remove an old ticket, the fact that your insurance company already found out about the ticket means your insurance premiums would likely go up anyway.

If you’re concerned about old tickets that might appear on your driving record, keep in mind that all tickets eventually disappear from your record after a certain period of time. Access your own driving record online, and find out how long before your driving record will be cleared.