22.1-241 - Contracts with publishers. - Virginia Statutes

§ 22.1-241. Contracts with publishers.

A. Local school boards shall either enter into written term contracts orissue purchase orders on an as-needed basis with publishers of textbooksapproved by the Board for use in the public schools. Such written contractsor purchase orders for textbooks approved by the Board shall be exempt fromthe Virginia Public Procurement Act (§ 2.2-4300 et seq.).

The contract price shall not exceed the lowest wholesale price at which thetextbook or textbooks involved in the contract are currently bid undercontract anywhere in the United States.

If, subsequent to the date of any contract entered into by a local schoolboard, the prices of textbooks named in the contract are reduced or the termsof the contract are made more favorable to purchase anywhere in the UnitedStates or a special or other edition of any book named in the contract issold outside of Virginia at a lower price than contracted in theCommonwealth, the publisher shall grant the same reduction or terms to thelocal school board and give the local school board the option of using suchspecial or other edition adapted for use in Virginia and at the lowest priceat which such special edition is sold elsewhere and the contract shall sostate.

B. Contracts and purchase orders with publishers of textbooks approved by theBoard shall require the publisher to furnish an electronic file of thetextbook in the National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standards(NIMAS) format that will then be deposited in the National InstructionalMaterials Access Center (NIMAC) from which accessible versions of theparticular textbook may be produced for students with print disabilities, asdefined in 20 U.S.C. § 1474. Publishers shall deliver the NIMAS file of thetextbook on or before the date of delivery of the regular text version.

Contracts and purchase orders with publishers of textbooks approved by theBoard for use in grades 6-12 shall allow for the purchase of printedtextbooks, printed textbooks with electronic files, or electronic textbooksseparate and apart from printed versions of the same textbook. Each schoolboard shall have the authority to purchase an assortment of textbooks in anyof the three forms listed above.

C. Every school board shall order directly from the respective publishers thetextbooks needed to supply the public schools in the school division. Thepublishers shall ship the textbooks to the school board. The purchase priceof such textbooks shall be paid directly to the publishers by the schoolboard.

D. With the approval of the local school board and the publisher, any privateschool within the school division that so requests may purchase from thelocal school board's contract with the publisher. Such private school shallbe fully responsible for ordering, purchasing, and receiving shipments ofbooks to be provided from the publisher pursuant to this section. The localschool board shall be immune from any civil liability as a result of aprivate school purchasing from the local school board's contract.

(Code 1950, §§ 22-299, 22-300, 22-301, 22-303; 1977, c. 85; 1980, c. 559;1995, c. 750; 2008, cc. 430, 615, 663; 2010, c. 97.)