Powers and duties of the commissioner and the department in selecting and adopting instructional materials.

(1) PROCEDURES FOR EVALUATING INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS.—The State Board of Education shall adopt rules prescribing the procedures by which the department shall evaluate instructional materials submitted by publishers and manufacturers in each adoption. Included in these procedures shall be provisions affording each publisher or manufacturer or his or her representative an opportunity to provide a virtual presentation to state instructional materials reviewers on the merits of each instructional material submitted in each adoption.

(2) SELECTION AND ADOPTION OF INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS.—

(a) The department shall notify all publishers and manufacturers of instructional materials who have submitted bids that within 3 weeks after the deadline for receiving bids, at a designated time and place, it will open the bids submitted and deposited with it. At the time and place designated, the bids shall be opened, read, and tabulated in the presence of the bidders or their representatives. No one may revise his or her bid after the bids have been filed. When all bids have been carefully considered, the commissioner shall, from the list of suitable, usable, and desirable instructional materials reported by the state instructional materials reviewers, select and adopt instructional materials for each grade and subject field in the curriculum of public elementary, middle, and high schools in which adoptions are made and in the subject areas designated in the advertisement. The adoption shall continue for the period specified in the advertisement, beginning on the ensuing April 1. The adoption shall not prevent the extension of a contract as provided in subsection (3). The commissioner shall always reserve the right to reject any and all bids. The commissioner may ask for new sealed bids from publishers or manufacturers whose instructional materials were recommended by the state instructional materials reviewers as suitable, usable, and desirable; specify the dates for filing such bids and the date on which they shall be opened; and proceed in all matters regarding the opening of bids and the awarding of contracts as required by this part. In all cases, bids shall be accompanied by a cash deposit or certified check of from $500 to $2,500, as the department may direct. The department, in adopting instructional materials, shall give due consideration both to the prices bid for furnishing instructional materials and to the report and recommendations of the state instructional materials reviewers. When the commissioner has finished with the report of the state instructional materials reviewers, the report shall be filed and preserved with the department and shall be available at all times for public inspection.

(b) In the selection of instructional materials, library media, and other reading material used in the public school system, the standards used to determine the propriety of the material shall include:

1. The age of the students who normally could be expected to have access to the material.