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Committee approves amended bill exempting Center for Distance Education from some procurement and state‑form requirements
Summary
The House Education Committee approved an amended bill (HB 12‑69) to modernize a procurement exemption for the Center for Distance Education, allowing the CDE to procure educational content and related technology with fewer OMB barriers while remaining subject to IT security and contract law.
Representative Schreiber Beck presented an amended version of House Bill 12‑69 to exempt the Center for Distance Education (CDE) from certain Office of Management and Budget (OMB) procurement steps and from state forms management requirements for curriculum, educational technology tools, and related services used for virtual delivery to K‑12 students.
Dr. Alyssa Martin, director of the CDE, testified the bill aims to shorten procurement timelines for vendors that must integrate with the CDE learning management system and to avoid a burdensome requirement to assign a state form number to every teacher‑created assignment or assessment. Dr. Martin said the bill does not exempt the CDE from NDIT security reviews, from state contracting law, or from attorney‑general review of contracts; it is intended to modernize a prior OMB directive from 2013 and place a narrow exemption in statute.
Chad Keach, state procurement officer with OMB, testified he worked with the sponsor and NDIT on the amendment and supported the bill; OMB explained a CDE curriculum exemption had been issued in 2013 when curriculum was largely printed materials, and the updated language recognizes virtual courses and online content and narrows the exemption to curriculum, educational technology tools, and related services while preserving IT standards and state contract requirements.
The committee voted to adopt the proposed amendment and then voted to give HB 12‑69 a due pass. The transcript records the amendment passing on roll call and the due‑pass motion passing; the committee also considered placing the bill on the consent calendar and named a bill carrier. Testimony emphasized that only a small set of vendors integrate with CDE systems and that timelier procurement is important to serve students when new tools become available.
Notes: OMB’s testimony referenced North Dakota Century Code chapters related to forms management and procurement; the amendment moved the exemption language into forms management law (chapter 54‑44.6) and procurement statute (chapter 54‑44.4) and clarifies the exemption is not a waiver of IT laws (chapter 54‑59) or security review requirements.
