Kansas has a complicated set of laws around driver's license penalties.
Advocates and legislators have long criticized a system that they say leaves thousands of Kansans without legal means to drive — sometimes for years — simply because they’re unable to pay the fines from a traffic ticket.
A law passed during the 2024 legislative session aims to keep more drivers out of that system by creating some space between the time someone fails to pay a ticket or show up in court, and when or if their license is suspended.
While there was much fanfare around the reform when it passed — it’s the first substantial change to the law since 2021 — legal experts and state officials caution that since going into effect on Jan. 1, there’s still more work to be done to figure out how the law will function for the more than 250,000 drivers with a restricted, suspended or revoked license.
Since the law took effect at the start of the year, state data shows that about 500 people have applied for restricted driving privileges and another 650 have received restricted privileges automatically under the new law.
What’s your status?
In Kansas, the average driver can have one of eight statuses. Most drivers have a valid license, which means the license carries with it all the privileges and abilities it did on the first day it was issued.
The new law impacts the rules on restricted, suspended and revoked licenses. These are generally the three types of licenses that someone will receive after they receive a traffic citation or break the law in responding to a citation.
A restricted license allows you to drive to a set of specific locations legally even as you may be dealing with penalties from the courts around your driving behavior.
A suspended license means you can’t drive legally until you remedy a citation, fines or court order.
A revoked license means you can’t legally drive for a period of three years. Once that time is up, you’ll still need to remedy whatever situation prompted the original revocation of your license — like paying a fee, completing a court ordered class or adding a breathalyzer to your car — and then reapply for your license.
Unsure of your status? The state’s Division of Vehicles has created a website where you can input your name and driver’s license number to see your license status. You can find it at: kdor.ks.gov/apps/DLStatus
How the problem starts
For the majority of Kansans with a suspended license, the problem starts with a ticket.
When someone is pulled over and cited for something like speeding or a broken taillight, they generally have two options — go to court to address the ticket or pay the fine outright.
In court, a driver may receive a ruling that requires them to pay a fine and court fees. If a driver misses their court date or fails to pay the fines or fees, then the court sends a notice to the state that the driver has failed to comply.
Failure to comply kicks off a system of license penalties that can be difficult to shake. Before the new law, drivers who failed to comply automatically received a suspended license. This type of license means that you can’t drive legally until you pay off your fines or go to court and fulfill its orders.
By the end of this January, state officials said that 123,549 drivers — about 1 in every 15 drivers in Kansas — had their license suspended because of a failure to comply. These are supposed to be temporary suspensions, but state research found that some suspensions last decades, primarily because people couldn’t pay the fines.
Nathan Emmorey, the Wichita municipal court administrator, told the City Council in January that as recently as 2022, there were 2,205 drivers in Wichita with suspensions dating back to 1997. Emmorey studied the issue as part of a recently completed doctoral thesis.
A suspension doesn’t actually stop people from driving, advocates say.
Micah Tempel is an attorney with Kansas Legal Services, a nonprofit law firm that provides education and assistance to low and moderate income people in the state. Tempel also leads the nonprofit’s Suspended to Reinstated Project, which hosts clinics throughout the state with pro bono attorneys who help drivers reinstate their license.
In 2023, he testified to the Legislature that suspended license laws did “not keep Kansas highways safer, it disproportionately impacts low-income Kansans, it stifles economic growth and it overburdens our municipal courts.”
Speaking recently, Tempel said studies show about 75% of people with suspended licenses continue to drive “because we live in a society built around the car.”
That’s a gamble, Tempel said, because if a driver is pulled over for another traffic citation with a suspended license, they’ll end up with a new case for that citation as well as a criminal charge for driving while suspended. The suspended driving charge carries a new set of fines and can end with jail time.
“So now you have this whole new case that you’re dealing with, along with the previous case that’s suspending you,” Tempel said. “The more driving while suspended [charges] you rack up, the higher the mandatory jail time becomes and the higher the fines become as well.”
There is one stopgap: Drivers whose licenses were suspended only because they failed to appear in court or pay their fines can petition the state for a restricted license. Restricted licenses serve as a kind of limbo between the freedom of a valid license and a suspended license.
With a restricted license, drivers are allowed to drive to school, work, health care appointments and court ordered activities for up to a year. If a driver still has fines to pay after that point, then their license is resuspended.
Living with a suspended license can lead to harsher penalties. Under the prior law, if you had three major traffic violations — like driving under the influence, vehicular homicide, driving without insurance or driving while suspended — within a five-year time frame, you were labeled a “habitual violator” and your license would be revoked.
A revoked license is the most stringent of the state’s license penalties. Once a driver has their license revoked, they’re not legally allowed to drive for three years. After that, they have to apply for a new license and comply with the fines and court orders.
“Revocations are bad because there’s nothing you can do,” Emmorey said. He added that if drivers do continue to drive with a revoked license and are stopped, they’ll have another three months added to the date when they can reapply for a license.
Since Jan. 1, the several of the harshest rules around licensing and driving privileges have relaxed. Here’s what’s new since the law went into effect:
Restricted licenses
The new law gives more people the ability to have a restricted license in lieu of a suspended license or as they wait out a revoked license.
Under the new system, a driver who receives a traffic citation has 30 days to pay the fines for that ticket. If the driver doesn’t pay the fine or appear in court, then the court will notify the state’s Division of Vehicles. The division will mail a notice to the address listed on the driver’s license to let them know their license has been restricted.
The new law further expands where Kansans can drive with a restricted license to include to and from the grocery store, daycare, gas stations and religious services.
Once the notice is sent, a 60-day clock starts that allows the driver to appear in court and work on a plan for how they’ll address the ticket.
Drivers can make use of a couple existing programs, like the manifest hardship program. It allows someone to petition the court and ask for a waiver of fees and fines based on their financial situation. This is already a popular program in Wichita where courts have waived more than $3 million in fines over the last four years, Emmorey said.
Drivers can also set up a payment plan for any fines or court fees that aren’t waived.
It’s only if a driver hasn’t used this 60-day period to pay their fine or begin working with the court that their license is suspended.
If someone does reach a point where their license is suspended, they can apply with the Division of Vehicles for another restricted license, which — if granted — will be valid indefinitely until their failure to comply is fixed.
Substantial Compliance
Another big step someone can take as part of the new law toward restoring their license is achieving “substantial compliance.”
Before, compliance was a black and white issue. If there were any unpaid fees or fines, courts were required to send the state a notice that there was an outstanding balance. That notice is what triggered a license suspension.
Now, judges are allowed to decide whether the work someone has done – things like attending a diversion program or following a payment plan to pay off a fine – count as substantial compliance with the court’s orders.
Emmorey said understanding this part of the law is still developing among judges and court staff. He said it’s still unclear whether a driver would have to make a motion before a judge could rule they had substantially complied and at exactly what point someone’s work was “substantial.”
Even so, Emmorey said the Wichita courts are working to apply this part of the law more often, starting with cases where the only reason their license is not reinstated is because of an unpaid reinstatement fee. Once a judge determines substantial compliance, that would remove the driving suspension for that specific case.
He did caution that many people have multiple cases or suspensions at the same time, so this ruling from a judge doesn’t necessarily get someone their driving privileges back, but it’s a start.
Reinstatement fees
Drivers can face a variety of costs, from court fees to citation fines. The new law did set a limit on one of the costs drivers face: reinstatement fees.
Now the cost to reinstate a license is capped at $100 per case, as opposed to $100 per charge or citation.
Revoked licenses
Some drivers with a revoked license can also apply for restricted driving privileges.
In order to qualify, the driver can’t have more than three convictions for driving on a suspended license due to a failure to comply case.
If the driver does qualify, they can have restricted driving privileges for the remainder of their time with a revoked license.
So is the law helping?
Getting more people the ability to drive legally as they work with the courts or state to restore their license was one of the driving motivators for the new bill, said Sheila Officer, chair of the Racial Profiling Advisory Board. The Wichita-based board was a major proponent of the bill and advocated for its passage with the Legislature.
“It’s just totally ridiculous [that people were] living under oppressed conditions like that,” Officer said. “I found it rather distasteful that it took Kansas this long to even get these measures on the books.”
Officer said that the board worked with legislators like Sen. Oletha Faust-Goudeau, who sponsored the bill, for the better part of a decade on driving reforms. They made strides in 2021 on improving access for suspended drivers and said the focus of the new law was on revoked drivers.
Tempel, with Kansas Legal Services, said he can’t comment on legislative intent, but so far only a few of his clients have benefited from the change. The new law isn’t a sweeping change, he said, but is a help for some.
One area Tempel did say was ineffective was a portion of the bill that was supposed to help drivers who had their license suspended because of years-old failure to comply cases. The law states that the courts or Division of Vehicles won’t consider any failure to comply convictions older than five years.
The problem, Tempel said, is courts don’t actually “convict” drivers of failure to comply; they sanction drivers in this situation. Tempel confirmed that when he approached the state to try to make use of this part of the law for a client he was told it didn’t apply because they weren’t convicted. State officials confirmed that the average driver is not impacted by this part of the law.
Local groups say that the law has made some of their work on this issue easier. Emmorey said the bill does help the work Wichita was undertaking to get more residents their licenses.
About 25 percent of the drivers in the state with restricted, suspended or revoked licenses — about 62,000 drivers — are from Sedgwick County.
Emmorey heads the Wichita Area Restoration Program. It provides court clerks who can help drivers view their driving records and understand their license status. Staff also work to help drivers fill out restoration or manifest hardship applications.
The Racial Profiling Advisory Board of Wichita has also created a guide for how to navigate the process in Wichita and Sedgwick County specifically. Part of the law mandated that forms needed in the restoration process be available to drivers in court.
“I’m going to say this is a good step forward, but it should not be the only step,” Officer said.
