Table 3.

Frequency table of subsidized fee-per-exam response

Subsidized exam fee	School subsidization strategies	School personnel rationales	Schools, FRLa
$0	Paid for all FRL Paid for any student disclosing hardship without requiring documentation Used discretionary funds to cover exam fees	Title I schools had additional financial resources Low number of FRL students requiring coverage District paid for all exams Cost should be no barrier	[011, 5%] [027, 10%] [119, 10%] [086, 20%] [088, 35%] [134, 35%] [023, 60%] (free)b [038, 65%] [096, 65%] [003, 95%]
$5	Established different fees for free-and-reduced price lunch students Used discretionary funds to cover exam fees Gave all students some level of discount Fundraised to cover FRL student exam fees Fees modelled after existing fee program	State legislation set price	[118, 30%] [046, 45%] (free)b [196, 50%]
$9–$50	Followed district policy Collected deposit for unused test fee followed by IOUs and refund checks Set an out-of-pocket maximum to cap amount students would pay for all exams Charged all students for administrative costs (e.g., proctors, space) Provided additional subsidization if students asked Asked students, “What can you afford to pay?”	State funding was unstable Price included unused exam fee Fees ensured student investment, or “skin in the game” Price was a “huge discount” Potential benefits to students outweighed exam fee Prices matched those of nearby schools Cost should be no barrier	[061, 10%] [079, 10%] [129, 10%] [074, 15%] [110, 20%] [016, 25%] [034, 30%] [137, 30%] [104, 40%] [046, 45%] (reduced) [002, 50%] [050, 50%] [023, 60%] (reduced)
Participant did not know subsidized fee			[012, 10%] [142, 20%]
Subsidized Fee Unclear			[058, 35%] [140, 50%] [018, 85%]
Subsidized Fee Unknown			[072, 25%] [021, 80%]

Information on free-or-reduced-price lunch student (FRL) populations is adapted from National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data’s Public School finder for the year 2017–2018 (https://nces.ed.gov/ccd/schoolsearch/)

^aPercent represents number of FRL students divided by total student population, rounded to the nearest 5th

^bThese schools charged different prices for free-lunch students and reduced-price-lunch students