DUI classes and programs, state by state

Almost every impaired-driving sentence includes a program, and almost every description of it online is a provider’s price list. What the statutes actually set is four different things — a length, a deadline, an approving agency, and a consequence for not finishing — and the ten states on this site disagree on all four.

What each state requires

The left column is what the statute calls it. The deadline column is the one worth reading twice, because missing it is what turns a program into a sentencing or licensing problem.

How long DUI classes are, by state

This is why “how long is a DUI class” has no single answer: the statutes do not use the same unit, and of the ten only California’s sets a length at all. Elsewhere an evaluation, the court or the approving agency fills it in — Georgia’s 20 hours come from the Department of Driver Services’ program guide rather than from the statute read here.

California counts hours, then months

Most states leave the length to the approving agency. California writes it into the Vehicle Code, and it changes with the count of offenses:

• A first offender whose blood-alcohol concentration was less than 0.20 goes to a licensed program of “at least 30 hours of program activities” for at least three months.
• A first offender at 0.20 or more, or who refused a chemical test, goes to at least 60 hours over at least nine months. Section 23556 uses the same two programs after a first-offense injury DUI.
• A second offense on probation: the court requires either at least 18 months or at least 30 months in a licensed program, counted from the date of the violation (Cal. Veh. Code § 23542(b).)
• A third offense: at least 18 months; on the person’s specific request and a showing of good cause, the court may instead order at least 30 months from the conviction — in which case the minimum jail term drops from 120 days to 30. A person who has already completed a 12- or 18-month program is not referred to the 18-month one unless no 30-month program is available locally (Cal. Veh. Code § 23548(b), (c).)

Two rules apply to all of them. Nothing done before the date of the current violation counts toward the program, and the court must tell the person at sentencing that the license will not be restored until the department has proof of completion. Note also the refusal trigger: a refusal puts a first offender in the nine-month program regardless of any reading — see what refusing actually trades.

The program is not optional in the ordinary sense: section 23538(c)(1) has the court revoke probation for failing to enroll, participate or complete, except for good cause shown.

Texas counts days, and can require three different programs

Article 42A.403 of the Code of Criminal Procedure has the judge require completion of a DWI education program regulated by the Department of Licensing and Regulation before the 181st day after community supervision is granted. On a written showing of good cause the judge may waive it, or extend the deadline to no later than the first anniversary of the start of supervision. The article does not apply where a jury recommends community supervision and also recommends that the license not be suspended.

A defendant punished as a repeat offender under Penal Code section 49.09 goes to a different one: an educational program for repeat offenders, again regulated by the Department of Licensing and Regulation (Tex. Code Crim. Proc. art. 42A.404.) Either requirement is waived where residential substance abuse treatment is itself a condition of supervision and the defendant successfully completes education while confined there (Tex. Code Crim. Proc. art. 42A.4045.)

The deadline has teeth. If the Department of Public Safety does not receive notice of completion within the period the judge set, it revokes the license or bars the defendant from getting one, and a license revoked for missing the article 42A.403 program comes back only on application and a $100 reinstatement fee (Tex. Code Crim. Proc. art. 42A.406(c), (d).)

Then there is the occupational license. A person seeking one after a DWI suspension must attend an alcohol dependence counselling program under Transportation Code section 521.245 unless the court waives it for good cause — and subsection (b) says in terms that it may not be the program required under article 42A.403 or 42A.404.

Georgia: the Risk Reduction Program is an assessment plus 20 hours

Georgia’s DUI sentence carries a DUI Alcohol or Drug Use Risk Reduction Program at every level of the ladder, to be completed within 120 days of conviction, together with a clinical evaluation and treatment where the evaluation recommends it (O.C.G.A. § 40-6-391(c).) The Department of Driver Services describes the program as “a standardized screening assessment to evaluate an individual’s alcohol and drug use, along with a DDS-approved therapeutic education course”, and states that classes taken at uncertified schools “will not be accepted for licensing, reinstatement, or court requirements” (Georgia Department of Driver Services, DUI Alcohol or Drug Use Risk Reduction Program page.)

The department’s program guide fills in the mechanics: the intervention component is a mandatory twenty hours, students must attend every session in sequence and cannot move on after missing one, and the assessment is valid for one year — enroll in the course after that and the assessment, and its fee, has to be repeated. A certificate of completion is due within one business day, and no more than 48 hours, of finishing (Georgia DDS, DUI/Risk Reduction Programs Policies & Procedures Guide (12/2024).)

Virginia and South Carolina: the safety action program decides the license

Virginia — ASAP

On a DUI conviction the court orders the person into an alcohol safety action program, as a condition of probation or otherwise; only a program certified as meeting the standards of the Commission on VASAP qualifies. A person who is charged may enter one at any time before trial. On the convicted person’s motion, after an ASAP assessment showing intervention is not appropriate, the court may decline to order it, for good cause. The entry fee is $250 to $300, which the court may reduce or waive on a finding that the person is indigent, and defendants referred for intervention may be charged further reasonable fees. If the person violates the program’s conditions without good cause, the court disposes of the case as if no program had been entered, and the revocation provisions of sections 46.2-389 and 46.2-391(A) apply (Va. Code § 18.2-271.1(A)-(C).)

South Carolina — ADSAP

A person whose license is suspended for DUI is told to enroll in and complete an Alcohol and Drug Safety Action Program. It starts with an assessment and a plan of education, treatment or both. Entering the recommended services is required for the ignition interlock restricted license; completing them is required for full restoration. Programs meet at least once a month, and the person attends the first one available after enrolling. Costs are capped at $500 for education, $2,000 for treatment and $2,500 in total; nobody may be denied services for inability to pay, and a person who cannot pay performs fifty hours of community service instead. Not finished within a year means a hearing before the program, appealable to the Office of Substance Use Services (S.C. Code § 56-5-2990(B)-(D).)

Florida: a DUI program’s report can cancel the license

Every Florida DUI conviction comes with monthly reporting probation and a substance abuse course conducted by a DUI program licensed by the department under section 322.292, which must include a psychosocial evaluation; if the program refers the offender to treatment, finishing it is a condition of probation, and the offender assumes the reasonable costs. If the offender fails to complete the course, the evaluation or the treatment, the program notifies the court and the department, and the department cancels the driving privilege (Fla. Stat. § 316.193(5).)

The licensing side runs in parallel. Before a DUI revocation or suspension can be reinstated, the person must show proof of enrollment in a substance abuse education course conducted by a licensed DUI program (the statute also lists a department-approved advanced driver improvement course), and a failure to finish the course or evaluation within 90 days after reinstatement brings the same cancellation (Fla. Stat. § 322.291.)

In Arizona and Colorado the program is the lever

In most states the program is a box to tick. In these two it moves something larger.

Arizona — the interlock clock waits for it

Section 28-3319 ties the department’s side of the sentence to the program. The department will not end the suspension, or issue a special ignition interlock restricted license, until there is proof the person has completed the screening, education or treatment or is participating satisfactorily; and the department’s interlock term begins on the date the person successfully completes it and is otherwise eligible to reinstate (A.R.S. § 28-3319(C), (F).) Not finishing leaves the department’s device requirement unstarted; only time with a device installed under a special ignition interlock restricted license counts toward it. How the interlock terms run covers the rest.

Colorado — it can suspend the mandatory minimum

Colorado’s first-offence DUI carries a mandatory minimum jail term, and section 42-4-1307(3)(a) lets the court suspend it where the offender undergoes the evaluation and satisfactorily completes a level I or level II program — including meeting all of its financial obligations. That makes the program the single largest variable in a Colorado first offence.

The evaluation is not the class

Several of these states require two separate things and people routinely book one and assume it covers both.

• Minnesota starts with a substance use disorder assessment by the county alcohol safety program. The appointment must be made within a week of the court appearance and the assessment finished within three weeks; the report, with a recommended level of care that can run from education to treatment, goes to the court and the Department of Public Safety (Minn. Stat. § 169A.70, subds. 2-4, 7(b).)
• Washington has a diagnostic evaluation prepared under the court’s direction, and the court then decides between a course at an alcohol and drug information school and more intensive treatment. The treatment agency must report any noncompliance (RCW 46.61.5056.)
• Colorado runs a presentence or postsentence alcohol and drug evaluation first, because it decides whether you are in a level I or a level II program.
• Florida requires the substance abuse course itself to include a psychosocial evaluation, and a referral to treatment cannot be waived without a second, independent evaluation.
• Georgia pairs the Risk Reduction Program’s own screening assessment with a clinical evaluation, and treatment if that evaluation recommends it.

Can DUI classes be taken online?

The statutes mostly do not say, because the answer usually belongs to the agency that approves providers. Three of the ten give something to go on:

• Florida rules it out. DUI education courses “must be conducted by a certified DUI instructor in a classroom using face-to-face instruction”, and “may not be conducted via the Internet, remote electronic technology, home study, distance learning, or any other method in which the instructor and offenders are not physically present in the same classroom” (Fla. Stat. § 322.292(4).)
• Texas assumes online programs exist. Among the things a judge may weigh on a request to waive the education program, or extend its deadline, is “whether the defendant has access to reliable Internet service sufficient to successfully complete an educational program offered online” (Tex. Code Crim. Proc. arts. 42A.403(d)(5); 42A.404(b)(5).)
• Georgia’s program guide provides for remote classroom instruction delivered under the Department of Driver Services’ own agreements and guidelines, and DDS will not accept a class from a school it has not certified.

For the other seven this page has not read a rule either way, and it does not guess. The approving agency is where the answer lives: the State Department of Health Care Services licenses California’s programs, the behavioral health administration in the Department of Human Services approves Colorado’s, the Department of Licensing and Regulation regulates Texas’s, DDS certifies Georgia’s, Virginia’s must be certified as meeting the Commission on VASAP’s standards, the Office of Substance Use Services certifies South Carolina’s, and the Department of Health licenses or certifies Washington’s. In Minnesota the assessor is appointed by the court.

What DUI classes cost, where a statute says

Most of the price is set by providers, not by law, and this page does not repeat provider prices. Where a statute does put a number on it, here it is:

• South Carolina: ADSAP costs may not exceed $500 for education, $2,000 for treatment and $2,500 in total (S.C. Code § 56-5-2990(B)-(D).)
• Virginia: an ASAP fee of no less than $250 and no more than $300, reducible or waivable for an indigent person, plus such fees as may reasonably be required of defendants referred for intervention (Va. Code § 18.2-271.1(A)-(C).)
• Minnesota: a $25 substance use disorder assessment charge, plus a $5 surcharge for a repeat within five years, on top of the cost of the assessment itself, which is paid to the assessor and which the court may not waive (a person eligible for public payment under chapter 254B or 256B is not ordered to pay it). The charge and surcharge can be waived or paid in installments only on written findings of indigence or undue hardship (Minn. Stat. § 169A.284, subd. 1.)
• California: the 18-month programs must provide for people who cannot afford the program fee, and on the 30-month option for a third offense the person pays commensurate with ability to pay (Cal. Veh. Code §§ 23542(b)(1); 23548(b), (c).)
• Florida: the offender “shall assume reasonable costs” of the education, evaluation and treatment (Fla. Stat. § 316.193(5).)
• Colorado: the offender must meet all the program’s financial obligations.
• Texas: no program price in the statute; the $100 is a license reinstatement fee after a revocation for not finishing.

What this page does not tell you

Where to take it. The approved lists change, and reproducing one here would be wrong within a year. The approving agency is named above where the statute names one; the list is theirs.

Texas hours. The statute does not set the length of the Texas programs. They are regulated by the Department of Licensing and Regulation, whose rules could not be opened from the Secretary of State’s site for this page, so no Texas hour count appears here.

Common questions