Senate passes bill to centralize AP testing information, sponsor to collect compliance data

Senator McIntosh explained Senate Bill 1975, which directs schools to post Advanced Placement (AP) course and testing information — including dates, sites and sign-up procedures — on a website by Aug. 31 so students can find testing opportunities in a single location. The Senate adopted a title-restoring amendment, the sponsor answered questions about compliance and fiscal effects, and the bill passed on third reading by unanimous vote (45-0) and as an emergency measure.

"This bill just organizes this process for students by having the schools put their dates and testing, locations and how to sign up on the website by August 31, so students can find that," Senator McIntosh said on the floor. During questions, senators asked whether schools are complying with an earlier requirement and whether the bill imposes any cost. Senator McIntosh said he did not have compliance data on hand but would try to gather it and that, to his knowledge, there was no fiscal impact associated with the change as presented.

Senator Hatch and others pressed for data about how many schools are complying with the current requirement; Senator McIntosh said he would try to obtain that information for colleagues. After brief, non-contentious floor votes to adopt the amendment and advance the measure, the chair declared the bill passed and the sponsor asked that final passage be considered a vote on the emergency clause; the Senate agreed without objection.

The bill's text, as described on the floor, standardizes where students and parents will find AP scheduling and testing information; the record does not include an agency implementation plan or a detailed fiscal analysis during floor discussion.