Any publisher of textbooks or electronic textbooks in the United States desiring to offer such textbooks or electronic textbooks for use by pupils in the public schools of Ohio, before such textbooks or electronic textbooks may be adopted and purchased by any school board, must, on or before the first day of January of each year, file in the office of the superintendent of public instruction, a statement that the list wholesale price to school districts in Ohio will be no more than the lowest list wholesale price available to school districts in any other state. No publisher of a textbook shall file a statement under this section unless the publisher complies with all of the following:

(A) At the same time as filing the statement, the publisher also files:

(1) For textbooks published before August 18, 2006, the wholesale price of an electronic file that contains the text of the textbook in rich text format, or another electronic format approved by the superintendent of public instruction, for translating the text of the textbook into braille;

(2) For textbooks published on or after August 18, 2006, the wholesale price of an electronic file that contains the text of the textbook, and of all instructional materials the publisher offers with the textbook, in the national instructional materials accessibility standard (NIMAS) code for translating the text of the entire textbook into NIMAS-approved formats, including braille, audio, digital text, or large print.

(B) The list wholesale price filed for any specified number of electronic files described in divisions (A)(1) and (2) of this section for the textbook and instructional materials the publisher offers with the textbook does not exceed the list wholesale price for the same number of the printed version of the textbook and materials.

(C) For textbooks published on or after August 18, 2006, the publisher sends one copy of the electronic file described in division (A)(2) of this section for the entire textbook and all instructional materials the publisher offers with the textbook in NIMAS code, at no cost, to the national instructional materials access center. As used in this section and in sections 3329.03 to 3329.10 of the Revised Code, "electronic textbook" means computer software, interactive videodisc, magnetic media, optical media, computer courseware, on-line service, electronic medium, or other means of conveying information to the student or otherwise contributing to the learning process through electronic means.

Effective Date: 05-25-1999; 03-30-2007.