Guess what? In the jurisdiction where one of my parents died, every death certificate cost $50. And no- you can’t get away with ordering two death certificates- you need one for every bank, the life insurance company, the health insurance/Medicare supplement company, even the landlord insisted on one in order to terminate the lease before the year was up. In the jurisdiction where one of my in-laws died, every certificate cost 10 bucks but if you show up at the county records office yourself and make your own copies, the clerk will notarize each copy for 2 bucks each. What a bargain. Except who can take a day off from work to drive to the county records office, get a certificate and drive to Staples, then head back and wait in a line for two hours to get your copies notarized?
This is life, OP. These clerical activities cost SOMEBODY money. Time, attention, ensuring the accuracy that each transcript goes to the right college. If you don’t like the policy, figure out who was responsible for imposing it and what the tipping point was (probably a kid a few years ago who applied to 30 colleges, tying up the guidance staff for three days before the Xmas break).
My guess is that the HS is willing to waive the fee when it gets a reasonable request in writing stating that the fee is a hardship. And they probably won’t ask for documentation- you write a letter, they waive the fee. But for most people, this is a nuisance fee (like the death certificates for $50). If they charged nothing, their employees would have time for nothing else.
And I needed a copy of my parents marriage license for the surviving parent to get a survivors benefit from a pension. After 55 years of marriage, from a county whose records office was destroyed in a fire in 1959. Don’t ask…