This bill requires the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) to subsidize student fees related to registration and administration for Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, and Cambridge international exams. It also bars OSPI and any other recipients of state funds appropriated for this purpose from using those state funds to supplant federal or private funds that already subsidize the same exam fees. The bill creates a new section in chapter 28A.600 RCW and amends RCW 28A.600.280 and 2022 c 75 s 1. The bill directs the Education Data Center (established in RCW 43.41.400), working with the State Board of Education, State Board for Community and Technical Colleges, Workforce Training and Education Coordinating Board, Student Achievement Council, Washington State Apprenticeship and Training Council, public four-year institutions, and OSPI, to prepare an annual dual credit report due each year by September 1 to the appropriate legislative committees under RCW 43.01.036. The report must include participation, credit award, and academic performance data for each dual credit program (defined to include Running Start, college in the high school, career and technical education dual credit, Cambridge international, International Baccalaureate, Advanced Placement, and other programs granting both postsecondary and high school credit), unduplicated head counts and percentages of students enrolled and awarded credit, specified disaggregations, recommendations for additional data categories, and a 2026 analysis of whether the section requiring subsidies changed exam passage rates and the demographics of students participating in AP, IB, and Cambridge international courses. This is a combination of a new funding/subsidy program, a definitional amendment for “dual credit program,” and a procedural reporting change; it does not create new crimes or change penalties. Important implementation details are not provided in the extracted facts: the exact RCW section number added is not given, the funding amounts or appropriation language are not stated, which entities beyond OSPI will receive state funds is unspecified, and the mechanics and timing of subsidy administration (for example, whether subsidies are full or partial and when they begin) are not described.

If enacted, students taking AP, International Baccalaureate, and Cambridge international exams would likely face lower out-of-pocket costs because the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction is required to subsidize those exam registration and administration fees; that subsidy will shift costs to OSPI (and other, unspecified state fund recipients) and therefore create pressure on state education budgets because those entities are prohibited from replacing existing federal or private subsidy dollars with the new state funds. Who actually pays, when subsidies start, whether subsidies are full or partial, and which other agencies get the appropriated money are not specified, so the actual budget impact and timing remain unclear. The Education Data Center must produce a detailed annual dual credit report by September 1 that disaggregates participation, credits awarded, and academic outcomes across Running Start, college-in-the-high school, CTE dual credit, AP, IB, Cambridge, and other dual credit programs, and the 2026 report must analyze whether the exam fee subsidy changed passage rates and who participates. That requirement will increase reporting and coordination work for OSPI, the education data center, the State Board of Education, higher education institutions, and several workforce and apprenticeship boards, and the findings could shift future policy and funding decisions, but the bill does not define the operational responsibilities or resources those agencies will need to collect and report the specified data.