The School Board shall be legally responsible for the adoption of instructional materials used in the operation of district schools. Responsibility for the management of the materials is that of the principal of the school. The principal is also responsible for assuring that instructional materials are used to provide instruction to students enrolled at the grade level or levels for which the materials are designed and for effectively communicating to parents, as defined by Florida Statutes, the manner in which instructional materials are used to implement the curricular objectives of the school.

I. The following standards will be used to determine the propriety of textbooks for selection:

A. The age of the children who normally could be expected to have access to the material,

B. The educational purpose to be served by the material, with priority being given to the selection of materials that encompass state and district performance standards,

C. The consideration of the racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, and cultural diversity of the district,

D. The degree to which the material would be supplemented and explained as part of normal classroom instruction.

Consideration should be given to recommendations made by adoption committees who have reviewed the available materials in a subject area. No books or other material containing pornography or other material prohibited by FS 847.012.

II. No school may participate in a pilot program of materials being considered for adoption by the state during the eighteen (18) months prior to the official adoption of the materials by the Commissioner of Education. However, publishers, manufacturers, and/or agents are not prohibited from supplying sample copies of materials necessary for examination and review as part of the selection process.

III. The Supervisor of Instructional Materials will provide to the Superintendent or his/her designee prior to April 1 a list of selected materials planned for purchase for a subject during the first three (3) years of the state adoption cycle. If non- adopted materials are selected, a list of the titles and publishers will be provided with documentation that the selections and reasons for the selections have been reviewed and approved by the appropriate textbook adoption committee.

IV. The Superintendent or designee shall notify the Department of Education by April 1 of each year the state-adopted instructional materials that will be requisitioned for use in the District.

V. The principal is to collect from each pupil or the pupil’s parent or guardian the purchase price of any instructional material the pupil has lost, destroyed, or unnecessarily damaged and to report and transmit such amounts collected to the Executive Director of Finance. Upon reasonable effort by the principal to collect the sum, failure to satisfy the debt may result in the suspension of the pupil from participation in extracurricular activities or satisfaction of the debt by the pupil through community service activities at the school site as determined by the principal. The principal may not delay the transfer of a pupil’s permanent record or delay the awarding of grades due to failure of payment of assessment on lost, destroyed, or damaged materials.

VI. The district instructional materials office, when requested by the parent of a pupil in the school, shall sell to the parent any instructional materials used in the school, for the District’s purchase price, plus10% shipping as specified in School Board Rule 4.23, with the exception being that this applies to student materials only. In no case shall teacher materials be provided to parents or residents of the county

VII. All money collected from the sale, loss, or damage of instructional materials shall be transmitted to the Finance Department to be deposited in the District school fund and added to the District appropriation for instructional materials.

VIII. Principals shall see that all books are fully and properly accounted for annually.

IX. Instructional materials purchased by the District School Board on behalf of dual enrollment pupils shall become the property of the School Board. The Instructional Materials office is to collect from each dual enrollment pupil or the pupil's parent or guardian the purchase price of any instructional material the pupil has lost, destroyed, or unnecessarily damaged and to report and transmit such amounts to the Finance Department.

X. District-Adopted Textbooks and Instructional Materials - A District- adopted list identifying all School Board approved textbooks and instructional materials shall be made available on the District website or school website where applicable.

A. For middle and high school courses requiring supplemental reading, a list of such materials outside of the locally adopted texts/series, will be provided to parents/guardians in advance of classroom use to enable them to request alternative material should they deem it necessary.

NEFEC
Revised: 06/27/22