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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T

SPONSOR:	Romero		DATE TYPED:	2/4/02		HB
SHORT TITLE:		Braille Instructional Materials				SB	48
					ANALYST:		Baca

APPROPRIATION

Appropriation Contained

Estimated Additional Impact

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY02

FY03

FY02

FY03

NFI

(Parenthesis) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

Duplicates/Conflicts with/Companion to/Relates to SB 122

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

State Department of Education (SDE)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

Senate Bill 48 requires publishers that sell instructional materials to a school to provide, upon request, instructional material in a computer or electronic format for the purpose of converting the information into Braille, large print or alternative accessible format.

Significant Issues

Existing agreements between publishers and the State Board of Education, the SDE or its agencies may reproduce adopted instructional materials in a format that makes them usable by visually disabled students, according to the SDE. This bill makes it mandatory that publishers of state adopted instructional materials provide the converted materials in electronic format.

The bill does not authorize the use of instructional material that would constitute an infringement of a copyright.

CONFLICT/DUPLICATION/COMPANIONSHIP/RELATIONSHIP

Senate Bill 48 relates to Senate Bill 122, Public School Instructional Materials.

OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES

This bill, according to the SDE will strengthen the ability of the schools to meet the needs of visually disabled students, and, in this way, strengthens the Instructional Materials Law.

LB/prr