GRAMMAR schools are sharing details of how they will select new pupils should the only remaining transfer test be cancelled.
Free school meal eligibility and proof of entry to independent entrance exams are among the top criteria that will be used.
Several grammars have withdrawn from next month's 11-plus - casting doubt that it will take place at all.
The Association for Quality Education (AQE) intends to hold a single exam for P7s on February 27.
The first of its three planned papers was due to be taken last Saturday by more than 8,000 children.
Royal School Dungannon (RSD), Campbell College in Belfast, Belfast Royal Academy, Victoria College in Belfast and Strabane Academy have all opted out since AQE announced its revised plans.
Lagan College in Belfast decided previously it would not use any test scores.
That leaves 28 of the 34 AQE schools although it is expected that more will follow.
It is understood others have agreed, following meetings of governors, to go ahead with the AQE's Common Entrance Assessment (CEA).
The Post Primary Transfer Consortium (PPTC), which is made up mostly of Catholic grammar schools, has cancelled its exams.
Schools are now finalising admissions criteria ahead of the deadline for publication.
Information for all post-primary schools will be available on February 2.
This means AQE schools will also need to make known their `plan B' on that date, should their papers still be cancelled due to health concerns.
AQE had said it would have results posted to parents by March 6 - in time for the deadline for applications on March 16.
The Department of Education has indicated that this remains the deadline and there has been no request for a delay to accommodate the AQE's new timetable.
Methodist College Belfast is among the AQE schools that has made public its contingency criteria.
It still intends to use the score awarded to pupils completing the entrance assessments.
In the event that this does not take place and AQE is unable to provide any children with a score, it will first select "applicants registered for the AQE CEA 2021".
If it is oversubscribed it will then offer places first to children eligible for free school meals then "the children of Methodist ministers".
RSD, which has said it will definitely not use the test, will also first offer places to "pupils who were registered by AQE to sit the Common Entrance Assessment".
After that, it will prioritise those who have siblings already attending or who previously attended.
Meanwhile, the head of Foyle College in Derry, Patrick Allen has dismissed Bishop Donal McKeown's claims that grammar school entrance tests have become "big business".
The Bishop of Derry said business interests should not dominate the conversation around the test.
The AQE, which still plans to go ahead, charges £55 for its assessment while papers used by the PPTC, which has cancelled its exams, are free.
"At the moment the board of governors of Foyle continue to believe the fairest way of allocating our places for next year is to have some sort of indication of ability," Mr Allen said.
