Do colleges look at level of Foreign Language completed or # of years of Foreign Language in HS?

My son completed Spanish 1 and 2 in middle school. He is currently in Honors Spanish 3. Do colleges consider the highest level attained (e.g. Spanish 4) or will they instead look at only 2 years of HS language if he stops taking a language after next year? He’s trying to determine if he’ll need to take an AP language course in junior year to satisfy language requirements for selective schools. This will impact the level of Spanish that he’d sign up for in sophomore year.

There’s a pinned thread that discusses the topic in depth:
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1802227-faq-foreign-language.html#latest

Feel free to post any questions there. Closing thread.