Local education agencies (LEA’s) who have opted to assure coordination with NIMAC must include in contract or agreement language for the purchase of print instructional materials that the publisher send a NIMAS file set to NIMAC and/or the publisher make alternative format materials directly available to the district. The Office of Special Education Programs opined in a January 2008 letter to New Mexico that — “this requirement is applicable to all new contracts for the sale of print instructional materials since July 19, 2006, notwithstanding when they were first published.” As a result this language must be included in all purchase agreements for print instructional materials (as defined above) that a district executes.
The following contract/purchase agreement language is provided as a sample. The sample language requires the publisher to send the NIMAS file sets to the NIMAC repository and confirms the LEA’s right to provide specialized formats as mandated by federal law. The files in NIMAC will be available to Missouri LEA’s through identified authorized users designated to access the NIMAS file sets. LEA’s can identify a date certain for delivery of the NIMAS file set to NIMAC in the contract/purchase agreement language when it is known that lead time will be needed to allow for production of specialized formats.
A second optional part of the sample language allows schools to require specialized format materials as designated by each LEA be made directly available from the publisher for purchase by the LEA. Schools may identify one or more specialized formats they wish to have directly available from the publisher for purchase. While not required, inclusion of an option to directly purchase specialized materials would likely be a benefit to districts.
It is important to note that if the contract/purchase agreement is with a vendor who is a distributor or other seller of the materials and not the publisher, such vendor should be required to provide written verification that they have the authority to agree to the above requirements on behalf of the publisher or the publisher should be required to directly agree to these requirements. The IDEA requirements are for the “publisher”, thus the contract/purchase agreement language is correspondingly for the “publisher”.
Sample Language
The publisher or authorized designee vendor shall deliver to the National Instructional Materials Access Center (NIMAC) an electronic file set that contains the contents of the textbooks and related core materials purchased pursuant to this contract/purchase agreement using the National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (34 CFR Part 300). The NIMAS files set shall be delivered to the NIMAC on or before the date of delivery of the print materials and the publisher or vendor shall document such delivery by providing the digital certificate number issued by NIMAC. An accessible version of the textbooks and related core materials, purchased pursuant to this contract/purchase agreement, may be created by the district for the sole purpose of making the textbook accessible to eligible students with disabilities as required to provide a free, appropriate public education.
(Optional) Upon written request, the publisher or authorized designee vendor shall deliver textbooks and related core materials purchased under this contract/purchase agreement in the identified specialized formats of [LEAs should identify and include one or more of the following formats as needed in their district] Grade II Braille, standard large print, digital audio, and e-text [LEAs should specify NIMAS file set or other electronic file format].
