Boca Raton School Zone Cameras Start Nov. 9, With $100 Fines After 30 Days

• Boca Raton, Florida, turns on school zone speed cameras on Monday, Nov. 9, 2026, outside Omni Middle, Spanish River High, Calusa Elementary and Blue Lake Elementary, which makes six camera zones across the city.
• Every new zone gets 30 days of warnings, then a driver clocked 11 mph or more above the limit with the school zone lights flashing faces a $100 civil penalty.
• The ticket adds no points to a license and leaves insurance rates alone, and the owner can ask for a hearing within 30 days of the notice without paying first.

Warnings Come First in Boca Raton, Then a $100 Ticket Arrives in the Mail

Boca Raton, Florida, switches on school zone speed cameras at three more zones on Monday, Nov. 9, 2026. The new cameras cover the roads outside four schools: Omni Middle, Spanish River High, Calusa Elementary and Blue Lake Elementary. Three zones already had cameras, at J.C. Mitchell Elementary, Addison Mizner School and Boca Raton Community High School, so the city now has six.

Nobody pays on day one. Each new zone opens with a 30-day warning period that starts when its cameras first activate, and 30 days counted from Nov. 9 run out on Dec. 9. After that, a motorist caught at 11 mph or more above the posted limit with the lights flashing is mailed a $100 civil penalty. The penalty is civil, so it adds no points to a driver’s license and does not touch auto insurance rates. The city also charges no processing fee.

The city runs the program with RedSpeed, a camera vendor, under Florida’s school zone camera law, section 316.1896 of the Florida Statutes. Juan Hiraldo, a parent near one of the new zones, says he pays close attention on the road when the lights flash. “Trust me, I don’t want a ticket, and I have a daughter of my own,” Juan Hiraldo said.

Where the Cameras Watch and When

Each camera records only when the zone’s flashing lights are on, and every zone has its own hours. At Calusa Elementary (2051 Clint Moore Road) the morning window runs 7:05 to 8:05 a.m. and the afternoon window 2 to 2:35 p.m., 95 minutes in all. Blue Lake Elementary (Military Trail and Potomac Road) is covered from 7:20 to 8:05 a.m. and again from 2 to 2:35 p.m., 80 minutes in all.

The third zone serves Omni Middle School and Spanish River High School together, at the corner of Jog Road and Yamato Road, and its hours run longest: 7 to 9:35 a.m. and 2:45 to 4:35 p.m., a total of 4 hours and 25 minutes. A commuter who cuts across that corner at 9:20 in the morning or 4:20 in the afternoon is inside a camera window, while the Calusa and Blue Lake cameras went idle more than an hour earlier.

The windows bracket the school day. The city listed school sessions of 8 a.m. to 2:05 p.m. for Calusa and Blue Lake, 9:30 a.m. to 4:05 p.m. for Omni and 8:30 a.m. to 3:20 p.m. for Spanish River, so each window covers arrival and dismissal. All four schools were named as Phase 2 of the program in the city’s July 2025 announcement, which means the expansion has been on the calendar for more than a year.

Drivers who use the first three zones already have a record to read. The program started on Oct. 16, 2025, and police reported 210 citations in the first week, most of them at J.C. Mitchell Elementary. Thousands of drivers had received warnings in a test period before that start.

What Triggers the $100 Ticket

Section 316.1896 lets a county or municipality authorize the cameras, so each city decides for itself whether to use them. The speed trigger is written as “in excess of 10 miles per hour” over the school zone speed limit, which makes 11 mph over the first ticketed speed. To find the line for any zone, add 11 to its posted school zone limit. The school zone provision of the statute applies in a band that opens half an hour ahead of a regularly scheduled school session or breakfast program and closes half an hour after it begins, with the same half hour on either side of dismissal. The state law itself came from House Bill 657, which Gov. Ron DeSantis signed on May 31, 2023.

Each camera photographs the vehicle and logs the date, time, location, speed and license plate, the city says. The ticket goes to the registered owner, and the owner is liable unless one of three exceptions applies: another person had care, custody or control of the vehicle at the time, law enforcement issued the driver a citation for the same event, or the owner had died on or before the date of the violation. An owner of a leased vehicle is not responsible for the citation when the vehicle is registered in the lessee’s name.

Hiraldo also raises a fairness worry about the tickets. “Sometimes people make a turn when it’s yellow… automatically turns red …they might be in the mid section of the lines, and you get a ticket for it,” Hiraldo said. “It could be a good thing for the children to control the situation, but also a bad thing for the drivers here in Florida.”

The statute gives a driver a way to test a ticket against a worry like that. The notice must include a photo or other recorded image showing the plate, the date, time and location, the maximum speed the vehicle reached in the school zone and the speed limit in force at that moment. A driver can compare those numbers with the zone’s posted hours and the speed on the notice before deciding what to do.

Where Your $100 Goes and What the City Says

Florida divides each $100 penalty by statute. The city or county keeps $60 to run the camera systems and fund other public safety work, and another $5 stays local to fund the crossing guard recruitment and retention program under section 316.1894. The county school district receives $12 for school security, student transportation or safer walking conditions, and it must share that money with charter schools. The state takes $20 for the General Revenue Fund and $3 for the Department of Law Enforcement training fund. Those five amounts add up to the full $100.

The city says traffic studies found significant speeding in its school zones on a daily basis. Police Chief Michele Miuccio and Mayor Scott Singer gave their reasons at the 2025 launch. “Safety is always our top priority,” said Police Chief Michele Miuccio. “By slowing drivers down in school zones, we’re taking a proactive step to protect students, pedestrians and the rest of our community.”

Singer said: “This program reinforces our ongoing commitment to public safety in Boca Raton. As a parent, I understand how important it is to know our students are protected. These cameras are an effective, responsible solution to curb dangerous driving behavior in the areas where our children walk and bike to school.”

Residents reacted a week after the first cameras went live. “I think people are starting to become more aware,” said resident Jonathan Shair. Shair got a warning in the mail. “Because of this [warning], I will make sure that I try to be more careful when I’m on that road for sure,” said Shair. He also wants the program to grow: “I just hope that they’ll put in more cameras along all these schools so we can really make the city a safe place to live,” said Shair.

The state keeps score. Under section 316.1896, every county or municipality running a camera must report to the state each year, starting October 1, 2024, on the number of notices issued, contested, upheld, dismissed, issued as citations and paid, plus where each camera sits and when it runs. The state department then sends a summary to the Governor and the leaders of the Senate and House by December 31 each year. Other states run school zone programs on their own terms: Connecticut’s school zone speed cameras carry $50 to $75 first tickets after a warning period of 30 to 45 days.

What to Do If a Notice Arrives

A notice of violation must go out by first-class mail within 30 days of the violation, addressed to the registered owner, so a current address on the vehicle registration is the first protection. The notice must say how to review the photo or video in person or remotely. Under the statute, the owner then has 30 days from the date on the notice to take one of three steps.

The first is to pay the $100. The second is to request a hearing, and the statute bars the city from demanding a payment or fee before that hearing. The third is to send an affidavit when someone else had the car. That affidavit gives the name, address and date of birth of the person who had the vehicle, plus the driver license number if known, and a police report if the vehicle was stolen. A false affidavit is a second degree misdemeanor.

A driver who does none of the three receives a uniform traffic citation by certified mail at the registered owner’s address. The statute names court fees and costs as what paying the penalty or sending an affidavit inside the 30 days avoids.

A hearing goes before a local hearing officer. Testimony is under oath and recorded. The officer reviews the photo or video and the speed evidence, hears from the traffic infraction enforcement officer and the driver, and either upholds or dismisses the violation. A driver can reschedule up to two times with a written request at least 5 calendar days before the hearing, or cancel by paying the penalty plus administrative costs before the hearing starts. A losing driver can appeal the final order under section 162.11. Los Angeles runs a longer grace period than Boca Raton: its cameras open with 60 days of $0 warning notices before Los Angeles speed camera fines of $50 to $500 begin.

The cheapest ticket is the one never issued. Slow down whenever the school zone lights flash, learn the windows for the zones on your regular route, and treat the 30 warning days as a free lesson. The statute bars remote surveillance with these cameras and orders the city to delete the recorded video and photos within 90 days of the final outcome of each case. Cities in other states are adding cameras too, and speed cameras expanding in cities nationwide shows where the fines are landing.

Reviewed by Preetam Gadekar

Sources

• Florida Senate: Chapter 316 Section 1896, 2025 Florida Statutes
• City of Boca Raton: City Implements School Zone Safety Cameras
• WPTV: New Boca Raton school zone speed cameras start Monday, bringing citywide total to 6
• WPTV: More than 200 drivers ticketed in first week of Boca Raton school zone speed cameras

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