In 2009, the United States Congress passed the Higher Education Opportunity Act which included provisions related to students choice and knowledge about textbooks.  Under the law, institutions of higher education are required to provide lists of assigned textbooks for each course during the registration process.
 
Washington State law requires affiliated college and university bookstores to disclose information on required course materials at least four weeks prior to the start of the class for which the materials are required.  Course material information includes title, author or authors, edition, price, and ISBN.  In 2020, the Legislature required the community and technical colleges to designate on their online course registrations the courses in which the materials cost $50 or less.

The public four-year institutions of higher education must indicate to students during registration whether a course uses open educational resources or low-cost required instructional materials.  A course uses low-cost instructional materials if the entire cost of the required materials equals $50 or less.  If the material costs are not available at the time of registration due to an unassigned faculty member, the cost of the materials must be provided as soon as is feasible.