Boards of education of city school districts, local school districts, exempted village school districts, cooperative education school districts, and joint vocational school districts and governing boards of educational service centers may purchase on individual contract school buses and other equipment used in transporting children to and from school and to other functions as authorized by the boards, or the boards, at their discretion, may purchase the buses and equipment through any system of centralized purchasing established by the department of education and workforce for that purpose, provided that state subsidy payments shall be based on the amount of the lowest price available to the boards by either method of purchase. No board shall be deprived of any form of state assistance in the purchase of buses and equipment by reason of purchases of buses and equipment on an individual contract.

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The purchase of school buses shall be made only after competitive bidding in accordance with section 3313.46 of the Revised Code. All bids shall state that the buses, prior to delivery, will comply with the safety rules of the department of public safety adopted pursuant to section 4511.76 of the Revised Code and all other pertinent provisions of law.

At no time shall bid bonds be required for the purchase of school buses, unless the district board or educational service center governing board requests that bid bonds be part of the competitive bidding process for a specified purchase.