Our homeschooling children were told they could take the AP tests at our local high school, but were then informed that it goes against their policy (no such policy exhists), three days before the tests started. Our children may potentially miss the opportunity entirely this year if we cannot get a late exam. This is a scary precedence. Has anyone else had a public school refuse to test your homeschooling children?
I have not had that experience, but can you call the College Board and report what has happened?
Also, can you get in touch with the superintendent of the school district and explain your situation and ask what is going on? (If it is the principal of the school that is causing problems, then you can go over his/her head.)
Also, call all private schools around you, explain the dilemma, and ask if there is any way they could accommodate your kids at the last minute. Maybe they have extra exams for the tests they administer for their own students?? I really have no idea, but if doesn’t hurt to call and ask.
Are your kids taking the AP courses through an online provider? If so, then maybe the provider can help somehow.
Public high schools aren’t required to offer AP tests for homeschool students. Did you get anything in writing from the school/testing coordinator who initially said yes to taking the AP tests? Did you pay for the tests before the HS deadline? Do you know if they ordered the tests for your students?
I would try the principal as suggested above, but if they don’t have the tests, I don’t see any options…they had to order those in March. You can also call CollegeBoard and see if they have any ideas/options to offer. https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/ap-coordinators/exam-ordering-fees/ordering-materials/home-schooled-students
Good luck.
Had you paid for the exams? The schools that have agreed to allow our kids take APs have taken our payment when they agreed to order the test for them.
They said they would order them, but never moved forward with it. Thank you for writing with your ideas though
(I’ve truly reached out to everyone, spoken with board members [but only via the public comments], The College Board, the superintendent, etc. I guess right now I am doing my best to compile information to move forward with this on a national level so it never happens to another homeschooling student in the future… hoping I can find out if others have experienced anything similar or what their experiences have been in the past.)
I recommend to be very clear with the issue and what you want changed. I still don’t really understand what happened in your case, and if you didn’t pay for the tests, why would the high school have ordered them? My kids’ high school doesn’t order tests for anyone who hasn’t registered and paid.
D21 takes her AP exams at a private school, and they don’t ask for payment until after the exams are over, fwiw. They’ve been great. Even let my kid sit in with their Spanish class to go over the format of the listening portion of the exam and practice with the equipment.
@Shaunannew As an aside, could you register your kids for the corresponding SAT2 exams (if applicable)? It is not too late to register them for the June 1 date, and the registration process is online. I know it is not the same as the AP, but it is still a standardized test and can’t hurt with admissions if the scores are good. This way, if the AP test cannot be taken anywhere, you can at least have SAT2 scores.
Not all AP subjects have SAT2 exams, but many do.
You need to contact the AP coordinator of the school where your kid wants to take the test to register and pay in February, March.
That’s so frustrating! Fear of something like this happening is why I check in a ridiculous number of times with the schools where my kids are testing to make sure we’ve done everything we need to do (and that they don’t forget about us). At this point I don’t think there’s much you can do other than raise the biggest stink you can about it. We’ve been through 4 different schools taking AP tests for my two high schoolers. The public school my husband teaches at let my son take them there one year then refused the next year. The school we’re zoned for won’t give them a seat. We found a private school this year that was happy to have us; hoping that will be our solution going forward. It’s a huge PITA for homeschoolers, and incredibly aggravating that the College Board doesn’t have a system in place to deal with it.
Kokotg, thank you for letting me know you’ve encountered the same issues and can relate! Do you mind if I touch base with you again soon? Proving that this issue isn’t just a local one is one of my main hopes with making sure homeschooling students aren’t being discriminated against, and moving forward with possible legislation or changes within The College Board. I’m so glad you’ve managed to make it work so far and you have all my empathy as to what it feels like to be at the school’s mercy 
?!
Hi CoolWeather! I agree that sooner next time is key, but I called around when the school informed me to call. Even with offering to register sooner and pay a fee, they are wanting to make this unavailable in it’s entirety. In fact, they did the exact same thing to my friend, 5 years ago, when she got in touch well beforehand. They said she could pay for the test when they came in to take the test, but then refused to give it to her son a week before the test was due.
Hi MWFan, the schools themselves were unaware that they couldn’t give the tests but found out later when they were confirming details about receiving payment, that they couldn’t give them (per an unwritten policy by the superintendent), and told us there was nothing they could do.
My public school has always permitted my kids to sit for AP exams. Many years, they proctored an AP exam for my kids (chemistry and physic C exams) when none of the public school kids was even taking the exam.
My public school requires the student to register and pay for the exam by early March. My kids then go to the public school a few weeks before the exam to complete some of the paperwork - i.e. list which college they would like the scores sent, etc.
Beginning this upcoming school year, I think most, if not all schools, due to a change at the College Board, will have registration for AP exams in the fall rather than the spring, so if you plan on having your child sit for AP exams next year, I would contact the school in September at the latest. (I think my public school’s sign-up deadline this upcoming year is mid-October.)
I hope at some point the College Board makes a policy change that results in the registration for AP exams for homeschoolers to be as easy as the registration for the SAT and SAT II exams is for us.