HB1255: Electronic textbooks; accessibility by students at school and in their residence.
HOUSE BILL NO. 1255
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:
1. That § 22.1-241 of the Code of Virginia is amended and reenacted and that the Code of Virginia is amended by adding a section numbered 22.1-241.1 as follows:
§ 22.1-241. Contracts with publishers.
A. Local school boards shall either enter into written term contracts or issue purchase orders on an as-needed basis with publishers of textbooks approved by the Board for use in the public schools. Such written contracts or purchase orders for textbooks approved by the Board shall be exempt from the Virginia Public Procurement Act (§ 2.2-4300 et seq.).
The contract price shall not exceed the lowest wholesale price at which the textbook or textbooks involved in the contract are currently bid under contract anywhere in the United States.
If, subsequent to the date of any contract entered into by a local school board, the prices of textbooks named in the contract are reduced or the terms of the contract are made more favorable to purchase anywhere in the United States or a special or other edition of any book named in the contract is sold outside of Virginia at a lower price than contracted in the Commonwealth, the publisher shall grant the same reduction or terms to the local school board and give the local school board the option of using such special or other edition adapted for use in Virginia and at the lowest price at which such special edition is sold elsewhere and the contract shall so state.
B. Contracts and purchase orders with publishers of textbooks approved by the Board shall require the publisher to furnish an electronic file of the textbook in the National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standards (NIMAS) format that will then be deposited in the National Instructional Materials Access Center (NIMAC) from which accessible versions of the particular textbook may be produced for students with print disabilities, as defined in 20 U.S.C. § 1474. Publishers shall deliver the NIMAS file of the textbook on or before the date of delivery of the regular text version.
Contracts and purchase orders with publishers of textbooks
approved by the Board for use in grades 6-12 six through 12 shall allow for
the purchase of printed textbooks, printed textbooks with electronic files, or
electronic textbooks separate and apart from printed versions of the same textbook.
Each school board shall have the authority to purchase an assortment of
textbooks in any of the three forms listed above,
subject to the provisions of § 22.1-241.1.
C. Every school board shall order directly from the respective publishers the textbooks needed to supply the public schools in the school division. The publishers shall ship the textbooks to the school board. The purchase price of such textbooks shall be paid directly to the publishers by the school board.
D. With the approval of the local school board and the publisher, any private school within the school division that so requests may purchase from the local school board's contract with the publisher. Such private school shall be fully responsible for ordering, purchasing, and receiving shipments of books to be provided from the publisher pursuant to this section. The local school board shall be immune from any civil liability as a result of a private school purchasing from the local school board's contract.
§ 22.1-241.1. Access to electronic textbooks.
A. It is the policy of the Commonwealth that all textbooks approved by the Board for use in grades six through 12 shall be equally accessible to all students at school and in their residence.
B. No school board shall make electronic textbooks available for use by students in their residence or residences unless the school board adopts a plan to ensure that on or before July 1, 2017 (i) each student in the local school division will have actual access in his residence or residences to at least one personal computing device not shared with another student that contains an operating system and hardware necessary to support the format of each electronic textbook that the school board seeks to purchase and (ii) each student in the local school division will have Internet connection service capable of transmitting information at a rate that is not less than 256 kilobits per second installed in his residence or residences.
C. The Board shall annually develop, update, and distribute to each local school division a list of personal computing devices that comply with this section.
D. Notwithstanding subsection B, a local school board may establish a pilot program for the use of electronic textbooks at any secondary school in the local school division provided that (i) each student at the secondary school has actual access in his residence or residences to at least one personal computing device not shared with another student that contains an operating system and hardware necessary to support the format of each electronic textbook that the school board seeks to purchase, (ii) each student at the secondary school has Internet connection service capable of transmitting information at a rate that is not less than 256 kilobits per second installed in his residence or residences, and (iii) the secondary school is receiving federal funds pursuant to Title I of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, P.L. 89-10, as amended, or no more than 5% of the students in the local school division or 300 children, whichever is greater, participate in the pilot program.
2. That the provisions of this act shall not apply to any program established by the Henry County School Board prior to July 1, 2014.