Florida becomes third state to offer English-only driving assessments
A new change in Florida has people in the state — and across the nation — split about whether drivers need to understand English before getting behind the wheel. One advocate said the change is harmful to immigrants and citizens on various paths of proficiency.
All driver’s license exams in Florida, including commercial ones, are now exclusively offered in English. The state’s Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles said in a January release the change was necessary to ensure safe roadways. The announcement comes nearly five months after a semi-truck driver, who authorities said understood little English, struck a minivan in Florida, killing three people.
State officials changed all documents on Feb. 6. The agency said that knowledge exams for most licenses were offered in multiple languages, with commercial ones offered in English and Spanish.
“Under the updated policy, all driver license knowledge and skills testing will be conducted in English,” according to the department. “To implement this change, FLHSMV has updated its driver license testing system statewide. Language translation services will no longer be permitted for knowledge or skills examinations, and any printed exams in languages other than English will be removed for use.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, applauded the change on his X account, writing in part, “need to be able to read the road signs!”
Adriana Rivera, communications director for Florida Immigrant Coalition, told Straight Arrow News that the state doesn’t have a robust public transportation system, which would compound problems people have getting to work, grocery stores and other places. The U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics found that in 2024, about 1.3% of Floridians used public transit to get to work. The national average is 3.7% of adults.
“At the end of the day, people are going to drive, and all this will do is criminalize honest hard-working people who are trying to make a living in the state,” she said.
She noted that the state boasts high Hispanic, Haitian, Venezuelan, Cuban and Puerto Rican populations.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2024 American Community Survey, 77% of people living in the U.S. speak English at home across all states and territories. Puerto Rico has the lowest at 5.1%, with Spanish dominating the main language spoken at home.
The bureau reported that 67.2 million people speak a language other than English at home, with Spanish accounting for 41.1 million.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order in March 2025, where he declared English the nation’s official language, the first time such a declaration has been made. The only way to formalize an official language is for Congress to pass a law on such, which it has unsuccessfully done for decades.
Democrat and Republican Hispanic coalitions in Florida didn’t immediately respond to Straight Arrow News’ requests for comment.
Change follows high-profile highway crash
Florida’s change followed a new rule that Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy instituted requiring all commercial driving license exams to be conducted in English. Duffy announced the change shortly after Trump’s executive order and findings from a fatal highway crash pointed to the driver not understanding English.
“America First means safety first,” Duffy said in a May 2025 release. “Americans are a lot safer on roads alongside truckers who can understand and interpret our traffic signs.”
This was compounded by preliminary findings from an August highway crash in Florida, where a semi-truck driver struck a minivan, killing all three occupants, according to NBC Miami. The driver, Harjinder Singh, was allegedly making an illegal U-turn across the busy highway when he struck the van.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement later detained Singh, who they said in a release is an unauthorized immigrant.
A preliminary investigation revealed that Singh failed to pass an English proficiency exam, giving only two correct answers for 12 questions, and accurately identifying one out of four highway traffic signs, the U.S. Department of Transportation said in an Aug. 19 statement.
Duffy alleged that New Mexico and Washington State violated federal rules that govern commercial drivers. He claimed that Washington gave Singh a regular full-term CDL in 2023, despite Singh not having legal residency in the U.S. He then claimed that New Mexico State Police failed to administer an English proficiency test when they issued Singh a speeding ticket on July 3.
“If states had followed the rules, this driver would never have been behind the wheel and three precious lives would still be with us,” Duffy said in the release. “This crash was a preventable tragedy directly caused by reckless decisions and compounded by despicable failures.”
Two other states exclusively use English exams
Two other states have legislation that permits only English on their driver’s license exams: Oklahoma and Wyoming, according to their pages.
Oklahoma’s written test is only administered in English, according to the state’s self-help service.
Wyoming allows people to use interpreters for non-commercial license tests, but only gives manuals in English, according to the state’s Department of Transportation.
States across the nation offer tests in English, Spanish, Arabic and languages spoken by tribal nations.
Most Americans support English being the official language
On a public standpoint, Pew Research Center found in August 2024 that the nation’s adults are split on the matter. About 51% said it was extremely or very important for English to be established as an official language.
The polling center later learned that about 46% of U.S. adults considered it important to them that immigrants speak English fluently.
It also found that 8-in-10 Americans often or sometimes interact with immigrants who speak little to no English. Of those, about 60% said they were not bothered by it.
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
