Regular Session
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.
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This bill's path through the Texas Legislature
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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 Local School Districts (via procurement audits), State Board of Education (SBOE) and Texas Education Agency (TEA).
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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