Occasionally states, districts, or schools elect to either completely or partially subsidize the exam fee for students. Total Registration’s service is able to accommodate these subsidies.
Who will receive an exam fee subsidy?
Before configuring your Total Registration (TR) account there are several questions you need to answer:
- Will all test takers or just Free/Reduced Lunch Students receive a subsidy?
- Will students enrolled in the school and taking an AP class receive a subsidy?
- Will students enrolled in the school and not taking the AP class (e.g., Independent Study Students) receive a subsidy?
- Will students not enrolled in the school receive a subsidy?
Clearly communicate that a subsidy is being provided
Subsidies come and go at the discretion of the entity providing the funding. With this in mind, it is important that families understand that the exam fee is being subsidized and they are not paying the true cost. It is not unusual for subsidies to change from year to year (or completely disappear) so letting people know that subsidy has been provided will help clarify fees in the future if the subsidy goes away.
If all students (regardless of F/R status, enrollment status or whether they have a class) receive the same subsidy, you might be inclined to just adjust your base fee. However, we do not recommend this as it does not clearly represent that the fee is being subsidized. We recommend setting the exam fee at the true cost (without subsidies) and use waivers to handle the subsidies. The good news is that TR's exam service has made this easy to manage.
When subsidies are given after students register
Some entities will provide subsidies late in the registration process. If your Free/Reduced Lunch students have already registered and paid their portion of exams, you can use the Adjust F/R Lunch Waivers tool to quickly add the new subsidy. Click Adjust F/R Lunch Waivers in the Free/Reduced Lunch Students section of your Report Center.
The Adjusting Free/Reduced Lunch Waivers screen will open. Add the additional subsidy amount, click 'Yes' next to the students who should receive it, and click Record at the bottom of the screen.
Students who had already made payments may then show as overpaid in the system. You can access the OverPaid report and initiate a refund for those students if necessary.