Federal & State AP Exam Fee Assistance
Funding Restored for Low-Income Students’ Exam Fees
Additional Federal funding has just been announced for qualifying low-income students’ 2012 AP Exam fees. These funds allow most participating states to fully subsidize all exams taken by eligible students. Some states that previously required students to pay a nominal fee per exam may continue to do so – this is a state-specific decision. Please encourage students who opted out of taking the AP Exams due to loss of funding to reconsider taking exams in May.
The fee for each AP Exam in 2012 is $87, with schools retaining an $8 rebate per exam. For each AP Exam taken by students from low-income families, the College Board will provide a $26 fee reduction and schools are expected to forgo the $8 administration fee; thus, the AP Exam fee for qualifying students is $53 per exam.
How does a student qualify for the College Board's fee reduction?
The College Board follows the economic-need guidelines created by the federal government. See Fee Reductions for AP Exams for information about eligibility criteria and the procedure for claiming College Board fee reductions for AP Exams. All students who meet the eligibility criteria are entitled to the College Board's $26 fee reduction for each AP Exam they take.
What additional federal and state fee reductions are available for students in my state?
The U.S. Department of Education has notified states that they now have additional funds to cover the costs of 2012 AP Exams for eligible low-income students. For most states that receive federal funding, when combined with the increased College Board subsidy, these funds will make all AP Exams free for low-income students in May 2012. For these states, the funding breakdown is as follows:
- The federal contribution will be $53 per exam.
- The College Board contribution will be $26 per exam.
- Schools waive the $8 per exam fee they collect for their own uses.
- Accordingly, the $87 per exam fee is reduced to $0 per exam for low-income students, and there will not be a limit on the number of exams funded per student (i.e., the three-exam cap announced by the federal government earlier this year has been removed).
In some states, such as California, Hawaii, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Texas, and Washington, students may still need to pay a nominal fee per exam – this is a state-specific decision. Principals and AP Coordinators in these states will be notified either via email from the College Board or directly from their state regarding any exam fee that students may still need to pay. State and federal AP Exam fee assistance information for 2012 will be updated with this information as soon as possible.
Please inform eligible students and their parents about the restored funding and encourage those who opted out of taking the exams due to loss of funding to reconsider taking the exams in May. If you have already ordered and received your AP Exams, you can place an additional order for students who will now be able to take the exam thanks to the restored funding.
To provide you with additional time to order regularly scheduled 2012 AP Exams, we have changed the extension exam-ordering deadline (for schools in the U.S., U.S. territories and Canada only) from April 13 to April 25. There will be no $50 late fee for orders placed by April 25 this year. If needed, you also have the option to order alternate exams for late testing until May 18.