Butte County Traffic School

Butte County rises from the Sacramento Valley floor around Chico and Gridley to foothill towns such as Paradise, and the Census estimated 209,211 residents on July 1, 2025. State Route 99 runs through Chico, State Route 70 through Oroville, and State Routes 32 and 162 head west toward Glenn County. The Office of Traffic Safety counted 979 people killed or injured in Butte County crashes in 2023, 48th of 58 counties, where 1st means the worst record.

The court's Traffic Division, at the North Butte County Courthouse, 1775 Concord Avenue in Chico, handles adult and juvenile citations for the whole county and answers at (530) 532-7005. The California Highway Patrol splits the county between two offices, the Chico Area in the north and the Oroville Area in the south, and a ticket from either one lands in the same Superior Court as a ticket from a city police officer.

When the court allows traffic school, you ask for it by paying a non-refundable traffic school fee along with the bail. The court sets the fee and the due date, and your courtesy notice shows them. Paying the bail alone is a bail forfeiture, and the court reports it as a conviction on your driving record. Finish the course by the due date and the court reports the violation to the DMV as a confidential conviction instead.