OVUAC in Ohio: Underage Drinking and Driving

Ohio has its own offense for drivers under 21 below the adult limit, OVUAC, and getting the license back means retaking the whole driver's test.

What OVUAC is

Operating a Vehicle after Under-Age Consumption (OVUAC) applies when a driver who was under 21 at the time of the offense is convicted of driving with a BAC of 0.02% or more but less than 0.08% (Revised Code § 4511.19). At 0.08% or more, it's a regular OVI.

Reinstatement requirements

OVUAC is a fourth-degree misdemeanor, and the court imposes a "Class Six" suspension of three months to two years at sentencing (Revised Code §§ 4511.19, 4510.02) — it's a court-ordered penalty, not a fixed term set by the BMV. To get your license back, you also need to:

1. Serve the court-ordered suspension (three months to two years)
2. Complete a juvenile remedial driving instruction course at an approved school
3. Pay a reinstatement fee
4. Retake the complete driver license examination

The actual jail and fine exposure

A first OVUAC in a year is a fourth-degree misdemeanor: 0–30 days in jail (suspended if the court grants unlimited privileges with an ignition interlock) and a fine of up to $250. A second or later OVUAC within a year escalates to a third-degree misdemeanor — 0–60 days and up to $500 — with the license suspension range rising to 1–5 years. OVUAC carries 4 points on your record, compared with 6 for a regular adult OVI. Alcohol assessment or treatment is at the court's discretion for a first OVUAC, not automatically required the way it is for a repeat or high-BAC adult OVI.

Getting limited driving privileges during the suspension

A court can grant limited driving privileges — for work, school, medical needs, or court-ordered treatment — but not immediately. For OVUAC, the first 60 days of the suspension are a mandatory no-privileges period; you petition the sentencing court once that passes, not the BMV. If your suspension came from refusing the test rather than testing in the OVUAC range, that's handled differently — see below.

Refusing the test is its own, separate suspension

Refusing a chemical test triggers its own administrative license suspension regardless of what your BAC would have been: 1 year for a first refusal within 10 years, 2 years for a second. The reinstatement fee for a refusal-based suspension is $475 — sharply higher than the $40 fee for a straightforward OVUAC reinstatement.

Under 18: juvenile court, and parents are summoned

Someone under 18 at the time of the offense is handled in juvenile court as a "juvenile traffic offender" — an adjudication, not a criminal conviction in the adult sense. Ohio law requires the court to summon at least one parent, guardian, or custodian to appear alongside the juvenile; this isn't optional or left to the court's informal practice.

No expungement, and diversion is uncertain

An OVUAC conviction can't be sealed or expunged from your record under Ohio law — there's no waiting period that changes that. Ohio's "intervention in lieu of conviction" program, which lets some offenders avoid a conviction by completing treatment, explicitly excludes adult OVI charges — the exclusion doesn't name OVUAC specifically, so it may not carry the same automatic bar, but this depends on meeting the program's other conditions and the court's discretion, and we couldn't confirm it applies in practice.

Related suspensions for minors

The BMV lists a separate one-year suspension, plus retaking the full exam and a $40 reinstatement fee, for anyone under 21 who uses someone else's license or alters their own to buy alcohol (Revised Code § 4510.33).

What it does to your insurance rates

We didn't find comparable published insurance rate data for an under-21 alcohol violation in Ohio. Two things are true everywhere: teen drivers already pay the highest premiums of any age group, and an alcohol-related violation on a young driver's record makes that worse. See what teens normally pay in our Ohio teen driver guide, and what an adult DUI does to rates in our Ohio DUI guide.

Related: Car insurance after an OVI in Ohio · SR-22 in Ohio