TO THE ADMINISTRATOR ADDRESSED:
The purpose of this letter is to advise all school districts and open enrollment charter schools of an opportunity to request a waiver of Section 31.104(c) of the Texas Education Code. This portion of the law requires school districts and/or charter schools to number or place an identifying mark on each textbook received by the district and/or charter school. Beginning with the 2000-2001 school year districts may request the new waiver to allow an alternative method to be used to catalog and account for all textbooks for inventory purposes.
To reduce administrative effort, this waiver will be considered an expedited waiver and will not require extensive narrative or description (extensive documentation) but only the superintendent's signature, date of local board of trustees' approval and comments of the site-based decision-making committee. The application must also include the alternate means by which the district plans to catalog and account for all textbooks for inventory purposes
Detailed instructions for submitting expedited waivers can be found on the Expedited/General State Waiver Form. A copy of the form is enclosed in this letter. The form and descriptions of expedited waivers also are available on the agency web site at www.tea.state.tx.us/special.pop/waivers/stategranted. Notice of approval is provided at the same address on the Agency's web site and in the Report on Waivers Granted section in the agenda materials distributed at each State Board of Education meeting.
All waiver requests are to be submitted to State/Federal Waivers Unit. Questions regarding the waiver process are to be directed to staff of the State/Federal Waivers and Initiatives
Unit at (512) 463-9630. Questions related to the textbook adoption process are to be directed to the Textbook Division at (512) 463-9601.
Sincerely,
Carol V. Francois
Associate Commissioner for the Education of Special Populations
Enclosure
A MS Word Version of this letter is available for download. The Waiver form will be posted to the TEA Data Collection and Business Forms webpage.
For further information on this topic, contact State/Federal Waivers and Initiatives Unit at (512) 463-9630.