Picture this: it’s the last semester of your senior year of high school. Your parents have paid for senior photos, your cap and gown, enrollment deposits for your dream school, and all sorts of expenses. You are so excited to be exempt from your final exams because you have been on top of your grades and attendance. But there’s just one thing wrong with this picture: You made the mistake of being in AP classes without signing up for the AP exams.

Per the Plano ISD website, “Students enrolled in AP or IB courses will be required to take the AP or IB National Exams. Failure to take the AP or IB National Exams will result in students not being able to waive their semester exam grades.” Not only is this unfair for AP students, but it creates an equity issue with the others. Students in Honors and On-Level courses can still be exempt, but students who sought out the most rigorous courses are forced to pay at least $99 to be exempt. In what world is that equitable and fair treatment? 

Additionally, this new policy change was just released in the middle of the last quarter. Before this point, people were under the assumption that the ORIGINAL POLICY was still in place, so they didn’t pay for their exams. Not only was this released at an inconvenient time, but there was no communication between the school district and the students about the new changes. Parents certainly didn’t receive any updates, which is an incredibly irresponsible move on their(district’s) part. And what about the people who can’t afford to take AP exams? There is a wide group of students who don’t qualify for reduced/free lunch but aren’t able to pay the full $99 per test. They definitely didn’t have a choice to take the test, since they couldn’t afford it, but they still wanted a higher level of difficulty in learning. Yet, they are seemingly being punished for being “too poor”. 

At a time like this, when tariffs and inflation are already making a negative impact on most people’s finances, they don’t need to be paying excessive fees to take a test that may or may not even count for a college credit. It is insensitive and out of touch, and feels like a slap in the face. Our school districts are supposed to work FOR US, not for the big wigs at the College Board. If they really cared they wouldn’t shoehorn children into lining that company’s pockets with their parents’ hard earned money. 

My name is Kya Secoundiata and I seek the restoration of the original exam exemption policy, which clearly states: “A senior in an AP/IB course who chooses not to take the national exam may also qualify for the final exam exemption if all of the requirements for the Senior Exemption Guidelines are met.”