Standardization is not a yes-or-no choice. States and systems can coordinate anything from final dollar amounts to data sources, methodologies, definitions, processes, and disclosure requirements, while preserving different levels of institutional discretion. These approaches can increase consistency and reduce administrative burden, but greater consistency does not by itself produce greater accuracy—particularly when a common amount is applied across places with different living costs. Importantly, among public institutions, the amount-standardizing approaches identified in our national data are substantially less likely to produce allowances below the benchmark and more likely to produce allowances above it than non-standardized approaches. This does not establish that standardization causes higher estimates—or that above-benchmark estimates are necessarily more accurate—but shows how shared assumptions can be amplified across institutions.