OER in Texas has a long legal history.  The Texas government has set forth certain legal requirements in education that support and necessitate the creation of OER and the adoption of low-cost or no-cost classroom materials.  Links are provided for access to these requirements. 

• HB 1027 (2021): requires that Texas public colleges and universities explicitly disclose within the institution’s course schedule the fee amount, student data terms of use, and opt-out procedure for course materials that will be automatically billed, along with other associated charges. HB 1027 also requires institutions to itemize any course material fees charged to student accounts and ensures that relevant vendor agreements are public records. The bill builds on the state’s existing textbook transparency law, which is already among the strongest in the nation, and will apply beginning with the 2022 fall semester.  
• COVID-19 Relief Funds (2020): The OER Course Development and Implementation Grant Program is a competitive program established by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board with CARES Act funding provided to the state government. The program supports projects at Texas institutions to enhance quality in online course offerings and reduce the costs of educational materials through the development of new OER for online delivery and/or the redesign of courses using existing OER. Awards are up to $25,000 for development and up to $5,000 for implementation. (Currently inactive)
• HB 3652 (2019): This bill requires the state board to contract with a high-quality open educational resource repository to develop and maintain a web portal customized to meet the needs of individual institutions of higher education, students, and others who may benefit from access to open educational resources.
• HB 3650 (2019): This bill amends existing law and requires agreements between school districts and public institutions of higher education that provide dual credit programs to consider the use of free or low-cost open educational resources in courses offered under the program.
• SB 810 (2017): requires that each institution of higher education compile a course schedule indicating, among other things, whether the textbook required for each course is an open educational resource. Institutions shall make reasonable efforts to disseminate information to students, including the availability of courses and sections of courses that require or recommend only open educational resources. Further, this bill would establish the open educational resources grant program to encourage faculty at institutions to adopt and develop courses that use only open educational resources. (More information is provided on the Senate Bill 810 page of this guide.)
• HB 33 (2011): Requires institutions of higher education to make information about required and recommended textbooks for each course available to students and to disseminate information about available programs to assist with purchasing textbooks. Requires textbook publishers to provide information to faculty about textbook prices and revision information. Requires that publishers offer the components of textbook “bundles” for sale separately.

Data provided by SPARC CCBY