Regular Session
Texas Education Agency (TEA) • State Board of Education (SBOE) • Local School Districts (via procurement audits)
Key implementation requirements and action items for compliance with this legislation
Review all sales agreements for the 2025-2026 academic year. Any clause stipulating a flat shipping percentage (e.g., "Shipping is 10% of order total") is void if that amount exceeds actual carrier costs. Replace these with "Actual Freight Cost" or "Pass-through Logistics" clauses.
Sales representatives must be retrained immediately to stop quoting shipping margins. Finance and Logistics teams must collaborate to ensure the shipping software (e.g., ShipStation, SAP) feeds real-time cost data to the invoicing system.
You must establish a strict audit trail. For every invoice sent to a school district containing a shipping charge, you must retain the corresponding third-party carrier invoice (UPS, FedEx, DHL). You must be prepared to prove that the amount billed to the school matches the amount paid to the carrier.
This bill necessitates a revenue shift. You must strip profit margins from your shipping line items. If this creates a deficit, you must adjust your base unit pricing, keeping in mind "most favored nation" clauses that prevent charging Texas schools more than other states for the same item.
Our government affairs experts can walk you through this bill's specific impact on your operations.
Schedule ConsultationInformation presented is for general knowledge only and is provided without warranty, express or implied. Consult qualified government affairs professionals and legal counsel before making compliance decisions.
This bill's path through the Texas Legislature
BILL ANALYSIS |
| H.B. 5515 |
| By: Buckley |
| Public Education |
| Committee Report (Unamended) |
| BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE During the 86th Regular Legislative Session, the Legislature enacted H.B. 396, which removed the geographical limitation on the use of the state instructional materials and technology fund for certain freight, shipping, and insurance expenses. Prior to H.B. 396, only out-of-state shipping costs were covered by the fund, while in-state shipping was paid directly by individual districts. The bill author has informed the committee that the original intent of H.B. 396 was to shift these costs to the state's fund, leveraging the state's bargaining power to secure more competitive shipping rates for districts across Texas; however, this change has produced the opposite effect, resulting in a significant increase in shipping costs. The bill author has further informed the committee that districts now face substantial allowable shipping charges even when the costs are substantially lower or minimal. H.B. 5515 seeks to address this issue by restricting the charges that a publisher or manufacturer of instructional materials may include in the price of instructional material.
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| CRIMINAL JUSTICE IMPACT
It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly create a criminal offense, increase the punishment for an existing criminal offense or category of offenses, or change the eligibility of a person for community supervision, parole, or mandatory supervision.
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| RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.
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| ANALYSIS H.B. 5515 amends the Education Code to prohibit a publisher or manufacturer of instructional materials from including in the price of instructional material a freight and shipping cost that meets the following conditions: ·exceeds the actual cost of delivering the instructional material, as determined based on the standard rate published by the carrier for the specified delivery method of the instructional material; or ·includes a handling or similar charge that is not directly related to the shipment of physical copies of the instructional material.
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| EFFECTIVE DATE September 1, 2025.
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| H.B. No. 5515 | ||
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| relating to restrictions on freight and shipping costs included in | ||
| the price of instructional materials for public schools. | ||
| BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: | ||
| SECTION 1. Section 31.151(a), Education Code, is amended to | ||
| read as follows: | ||
| (a) A publisher or manufacturer of instructional materials: | ||
| (1) shall furnish any instructional material the | ||
| publisher or manufacturer offers in this state at a price that does | ||
| not exceed the lowest price at which the publisher offers that | ||
| instructional material for adoption or sale to any state, public | ||
| school, or school district in the United States; | ||
| (2) shall automatically reduce the price of | ||
| instructional material sold for use in a school district or | ||
| open-enrollment charter school to the extent that the price is | ||
| reduced elsewhere in the United States; | ||
| (3) shall provide any instructional material or | ||
| ancillary item free of charge in this state to the same extent that | ||
| the publisher or manufacturer provides the instructional material | ||
| or ancillary item free of charge to any state, public school, or | ||
| school district in the United States; | ||
| (4) may not include in the price of instructional | ||
| material a freight and shipping cost that: | ||
| (A) exceeds the actual cost of delivering the | ||
| instructional material, as determined based on the standard rate | ||
| published by the carrier for the specified delivery method of the | ||
| instructional material; or | ||
| (B) includes a handling or similar charge that is | ||
| not directly related to the shipment of physical copies of the | ||
| instructional material; | ||
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(5) [ |
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| instructional material sold in this state is at least equal in | ||
| quality to copies of that instructional material sold elsewhere in | ||
| the United States and is free from factual error; | ||
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(6) [ |
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| directly or indirectly, any combination in restraint of trade in | ||
| instructional materials or enter into any understanding or | ||
| combination to control prices or restrict competition in the sale | ||
| of instructional materials for use in this state; | ||
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(7) [ |
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| school district or open-enrollment charter school; | ||
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(8) [ |
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| instructional materials is acknowledged, provide to school | ||
| districts or open-enrollment charter schools an accurate shipping | ||
| date for instructional materials that are back-ordered; | ||
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(9) [ |
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| materials at least 10 business days before the opening day of school | ||
| of the year for which the instructional materials are ordered if the | ||
| instructional materials are ordered by a date specified in the | ||
| sales contract; | ||
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(10) [ |
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| Education an affidavit certifying any instructional material the | ||
| publisher or manufacturer offers in this state to be free of factual | ||
| errors at the time the publisher executes the contract required by | ||
| Section 31.026; and | ||
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(11) [ |
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| and conditions adopted by the State Board of Education for use in | ||
| contracts for the procurement of instructional materials under | ||
| Subsection (a-1). | ||
| SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 2025. | ||
| TO: | Honorable Brad Buckley, Chair, House Committee on Public Education |
| FROM: | Jerry McGinty, Director, Legislative Budget Board |
| IN RE: | HB5515 by Buckley (Relating to restrictions on freight and shipping costs included in the price of instructional materials for public schools.), As Introduced |
| Source Agencies: | 701 Texas Education Agency |
| LBB Staff: | JMc, NC, SL |
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Common questions about HB5515
HB5515 eliminates "shipping and handling" as a profit center for instructional materials sold to Texas public schools. Vendors are now legally prohibited from charging freight costs that exceed the actual carrier rate or adding administrative handling fees. This impacts all publishers, manufacturers, and distributors of instructional materials; if you rely on flat-rate shipping percentages to subsidize unit prices, your pricing model is now non-compliant.
HB5515 was authored by Texas Representative Brad Buckley during the Regular Session.
HB5515 was signed into law by Governor Greg Abbott on June 20, 2025.
HB5515 is enforced by Texas Education Agency (TEA), State Board of Education (SBOE) and Local School Districts (via procurement audits).
The compliance urgency for HB5515 is rated as "critical". Businesses and organizations should review the requirements and timeline to ensure timely compliance.
The cost impact of HB5515 is estimated as "high". This may vary based on industry and implementation requirements.
HB5515 addresses topics including education, education--primary & secondary, education--primary & secondary--finance, education--primary & secondary--general and science & technology.
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