Fla. Stat. § 1006.38 — Florida Code / Title XLVIII / Chapter 1006 / Part I / Section 1006.38
1006.38 Duties, responsibilities, and requirements of instructional materials publishers and manufacturers.
Status: in_force

This section applies to both the state and district approval processes. Publishers and manufacturers of instructional materials, or their representatives, shall:

(1) Comply with all provisions of this part.

(2) Electronically deliver fully developed sample copies of all instructional materials upon which bids are based to the department pursuant to procedures adopted by the State Board of Education.

(3) Make sample student editions of instructional materials on the commissioner’s list of state-adopted instructional materials electronically available, at a discount below publisher cost, for use by teacher preparation programs and by educator preparation institutes as defined in ss. 1004.04 and 1004.85(1), respectively, for each adoption cycle, to enable educators to practice teaching with currently adopted instructional materials aligned to state academic standards. (a) Teacher preparation programs and educator preparation institutes that use samples to practice teaching shall provide reasonable safeguards against the unauthorized use, reproduction, and distribution of the sample copies of instructional materials. (b) Notwithstanding subsection (5), publishers may make sample student editions of adopted instructional materials available at a discounted price to teacher preparation programs and educator preparation institutes for the instructional purpose of educators practicing with current materials.

(4) Submit, at a time designated in s. 1006.33, the following information: (a) Detailed specifications of the physical characteristics of the instructional materials, including any software or technological tools required for use by the district, school, teachers, or students. The publisher or manufacturer shall comply with these specifications if the instructional materials are adopted and purchased in completed form. (b) Evidence that the publisher or manufacturer has provided materials that address the performance standards provided for in s. 1001.03(1) and that can be accessed through the school district’s digital classrooms plan and a variety of electronic, digital, and mobile devices. (c) Evidence that the instructional materials include specific references to statewide standards in the teacher’s manual and incorporate such standards into chapter tests or the assessments.

(5) Make available for purchase by any district school board any diagnostic, criterion-referenced, or other tests that they may develop.

(6) Furnish the instructional materials offered by them at a price in the state which, including all costs of electronic transmission, may not exceed the lowest price at which they offer such instructional materials for adoption or sale to any state or school district in the United States.

(7) Reduce automatically the price of the instructional materials to any district school board to the extent that reductions are made elsewhere in the United States.

(8) Provide any instructional materials free of charge in the state to the same extent as they are provided free of charge to any state or school district in the United States.

(9) Guarantee that all copies of any instructional materials sold in this state will be at least equal in quality to the copies of such instructional materials that are sold elsewhere in the United States and will be kept revised, free from all errors, and up-to-date as may be required by the department.

(10) Agree that any supplementary material developed at the district or state level does not violate the author’s or publisher’s copyright, provided such material is developed in accordance with the doctrine of fair use.

(11) Not in any way, directly or indirectly, become associated or connected with any combination in restraint of trade in instructional materials, nor enter into any understanding, agreement, or combination to control prices or restrict competition in the sale of instructional materials for use in the state.

(12) Maintain or contract with a depository in the state.

(13) For the core subject areas specified in s. 1006.40(2), maintain in the depository for the first 3 years of the contract an inventory of instructional materials sufficient to receive and fill orders.

(14) For the core subject areas specified in s. 1006.40(2), ensure the availability of an inventory sufficient to receive and fill orders for instructional materials for growth, including the opening of a new school, and replacement during the 3rd and subsequent years of the original contract period.

(15) Accurately and fully disclose only the names of those persons who actually authored the instructional materials. In addition to the penalties provided in subsection (17), the commissioner may remove from the list of state-adopted instructional materials those instructional materials whose publisher or manufacturer misleads the purchaser by falsely representing genuine authorship.

(16) Grant, without prior written request, for any copyright held by the publisher or its agencies automatic permission to the department or its agencies for the reproduction of instructional materials and supplementary materials in Braille, large print, or other appropriate format for use by visually impaired students or other students with disabilities that would benefit from use of the materials.

(17) Upon the willful failure of the publisher or manufacturer to comply with the requirements of this section, be liable to the department in the amount of three times the total sum which the publisher or manufacturer was paid in excess of the price required under subsections (6) and (7) and in the amount of three times the total value of the instructional materials and services which the district school board is entitled to receive free of charge under subsection (8).

History: s. 313, ch. 2002-387; s. 29, ch. 2011-55; s. 5, ch. 2013-237; s. 13, ch. 2014-56; s. 16, ch. 2024-101.