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Purchasing for School Districts
- How to Purchase from ESC Region 11
- Educational Purchasing Cooperative of North Texas (EPCNT)
- Purchasing Cooperatives
How to Purchase from ESC Region 11
ESC Region 11 provides a wide range of services to support our school districts. We encourage you to explore the various options on our Services A-Z page. Services can be purchased through annual contracts or by participating in one of our many consortiums. Additionally, ESC Region 11 offers products for purchase through our Digital Café.
If you plan to purchase our services or products via a consortium, we ask that you complete the ESC Region 11 Master Interlocal Agreement (MIA). This document is required for legal transactions, as outlined in Chapter 791 of the Texas Government Code, which permits local governments to enter into contracts with one another under specified terms:
MIA “Purpose: This Agreement shall: (1) Allow the Local Government to purchase products or services by purchase order, contract, agreement, or another appropriate legal method from ESC Region 11; and (2) Allow the Local Government to join ESC Region 11-sponsored purchasing cooperatives to purchase products or services from vendors which have been properly awarded contracts through statutorily authorized methods.
Educational Purchasing Cooperative of North Texas (EPCNT)
Please review the About EPCNT and Member Guide pages on the EPCNT website to learn more about how the cooperative operates.
Although EPCNT is a purchasing cooperative, there is no agency that functions as the administrator for this cooperative. Instead, it functions as a "Contract Sharing" cooperative, rather than an administrative one.
ESC Region 11 acts as the fiscal agent for EPCNT and is responsible for collecting any annual fees.
ESC Region 11 is also a member of the Educational Purchasing Cooperative of North Texas (EPCNT) and incorporates the EPCNT agreement into most of our qualified bids. If your district is a member of EPCNT, you can take advantage of the ESC Region 11 bids in which the vendor has agreed to the EPCNT clause. This is a valuable resource for qualified districts in both Region 10 and Region 11 that join the EPCNT.
For a list of vendors that have agreed to the EPCNT clause, please refer to the Awarded RFPs page.
Purchasing Cooperatives
It is recommended that school districts join multiple purchasing cooperatives. Review the ESC Region 11 Purchasing Cooperative Membership List. (Please note, this is not an exhaustive list.)
Legal Authorization for using Purchasing Cooperatives
School districts are authorized to use purchasing cooperatives by the Texas Education Code, and as a local government entity by the Texas Local Government Code. The Texas Education Code, Section 44.031, authorizes districts to enter into interlocal agreements with other government entities, including purchasing cooperatives that are managed by a government entity, for aggregate purchases of $50,000 or more, instead of using competitive bidding. An interlocal agreement is a contract between a local government such as a school district and another local government, a state agency, or another state, that can be used to procure goods or services.
The Texas Local Government Code, Section 271.102, authorizes a local government, including a school district, to participate in a cooperative purchasing program with a local government or cooperative organization of Texas or another state. By doing so, a local government entity automatically satisfies any requirement to seek competitive bidding.