National TA Center for Homeless Education Sources Sought.pdf

National Technical Assistance Center for Homeless

Education

Sources Sought Announcement

U.S. Department of Education Office of Elementary and Secondary Education

Purpose:

The U.S. Department of Education (ED) is seeking qualified businesses to provide awareness of the educational rights of children and youth experiencing homelessness afforded to them under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act as well as to disseminating good practices for program implementation and coordination with other homeless child and youth-serving agencies, organizations, and programs.

This is a Sources Sought Announcement being released pursuant to Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 10 - Market Research. This Sources Sought Announcement’s purpose is to conduct market research and determine the availability and technical capability of all sources to provide the required services.

The applicable North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code assigned to this procurement is 541611 Administrative Management and General Management Consulting Services.

There is no solicitation at this time. This request for capability information does not constitute a request for proposals; submission of any information in response to this market survey is purely voluntary; the government assumes no financial responsibility for any costs incurred.

Background:

Title VII, Part B (Education for Homeless Children and Youth) program of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act is housed within the Office of School Support and Accountability (SSA, within the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE). SSA’s mission is to help States and local education agencies (LEAs) provide the supports that are necessary for all public school students to be college and career-ready. SSA administers grants that fall into two categories: 1) formula grants, which provide funds to states, LEAs and other entities based on census data and 2) competitive grants to develop assessments, which allow States and other entities to compete for federal funds.

This procurement will ensure that State educational agencies (SEAs), and local educational agencies (LEAs) have access to training, technical assistance, and resources to improve the education of children and youth experiencing homelessness. This procurement will include planning and hosting an annual State coordinators meeting, conducting several training sessions (online, onsite), and producing and disseminating technical documents (topical briefs, fact sheets, posters, etc.) to educators, administrators, State coordinators and homeless liaisons. This procurement is also needed to provide administrative and logistical support in planning and preparing for annual national meetings on current issues faced with the education of homeless children and youth. Additionally, this procurement will provide administrative and logistical support in assisting the Department with new inter-agency initiatives involving the Education for Homeless Children and Youth (EHCY) program.

Ultimately, this procurement seeks to bring awareness of the educational rights of children and youth experiencing homelessness afforded to them under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act as well as to disseminating good practices for program implementation and coordination with other homeless child and youth-serving agencies, organizations, and programs.

Objective:

The Department is seeking industry feedback regarding the Draft Performance Statement of Work that is attached to this announcement. The Department is seeking capability statements addressing the following areas:

Vendor to demonstrate its ability to meet the objectives of the requirement to include the effort’s size and scope. The requirements objectives include:

1. Disseminating information about effective programs and practices related to issues surrounding the education of children and youth in homeless situations.

2. Fostering collaboration among various organizations with interests in addressing the education of homeless children in order to promote local awareness of homeless issues.

3. Fostering greater understanding of and compliance with the McKinney-Vento Homeless

Assistance Act.

4. Implementing appropriate innovative approaches to sharing research and information relating to homeless education.

5. Assisting the Department with data collection and analyses.

Vendor to demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and experience in all the following areas:

• Knowledge of extant and emerging issues related to the education of homeless children and youth;

• Knowledge of promising practices and programs in the area of the education of homeless children and youth;

• Experience writing for different audiences and purposes, including through both technical writing and expository writing;

• Experience providing technical assistance through various modalities, including through written resources, webinars, and communities of practice;

• Experience analyzing and presenting complex data;

• Knowledge of programs, agencies, organizations, and research/researchers working in the area of the education of homeless children and youth; and

• Knowledge of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act and Subtitle VII-B of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act; and

• Experience hosting websites, listservs, hotlines.

This document consists of three major information request components to be submitted in three parts:

1. Request for capability statements.

2. Targeted vendor outreach questions and responses.

3. Request for comment and feedback relating to the PWS

Detailed information for each request is located in the appropriate subsection below. Please review this document carefully as it is designed to streamline the acquisition process and avoid an extensive question-answer period during the active solicitation phase. Please feel free to submit additional questions as part of your document response so that the Department may address your questions prior to release of the solicitation.

Please note that all solicitation-related documents in this Sources Sought Announcement are draft versions. The content of each document may change substantially between release of this notice and release of the final solicitation. The final solicitation will be governed by the terms, conditions, instructions, and criteria in that document. Offerors should not rely on the contents of this Source Sought Announcement for preparing final proposals. To the extent that information provided in this document is inconsistent with or contradicts information contained in the final Solicitation, the Solicitation controls.

Submission Instructions Detailed information for the required submission is provided below. Offerors should submit, via email, the following documents to Daniel.Griffith@ed.gov with a cc to Matthew.Lucas@ed.gov no later than March 21, 2024 at 4:00 PM Eastern Standard Time. The subject line shall read:

Sources Sought: National Technical Assistance Center for Homeless Education.

I. One PDF document that contains your Capability Statement.

II. One PDF document that contains your response to vendor questions.

III. One WORD document that contains any comments, track change revisions, or edits to the PWS. Narrative justifications for changes are also welcome if appropriate. If offerors have additional questions regarding any of the three documents, please feel free to include this information in a separate heading in your WORD document that contains these questions in addition to any narrative information.

Offerors should submit all three documents in one email. Please note there is a 15MB file size limitation.

Capability Statements The Department requests capability statements in order to evaluate what, if any, set aside determinations are appropriate. The Department will make a small business set aside determination for the requirement. We reserve the right to use other resources and information to inform our acquisition strategy.

The Department will not review generic capability statements. Vendors are to provide a capability statement that demonstrates the vendor’s corporate capability, capacity, and knowledge to successfully complete the work of the PWS.

Format and Instructions for Capability Statements The capability statements must contain sufficient detail; however, statements are limited to 10 pages (not including the cover page) and must be submitted in PDF format. Font size must be 12-point, minimum 10-point for any tables or figures. The Department will not consider material more than 10 pages.

Cover Page containing the following information:

• Name of Company

• Address

• Primary Point of Contact (phone and email)

• Unique Entity Identifier (UEID)

• Socioeconomic Status under the NAICS code 541611 Administrative

Management and General Management Consulting Services

• Identify GSA Schedule(s), if applicable mailto:Daniel.Griffith@ed.gov mailto:Matthew.Lucas@ed.gov

Vendor Questions

(1) What, if any, additional information should the Department provide in the PWS to enable you to accurately estimate the price/cost of each task?

(2) Can you identify any barriers to competition? If so, please identify and describe how the

Department could reduce or eliminate those barriers.

(3) Is there any other information that you wish to convey to the Department?

Information provided will be used solely by the Department as market research and the Department does not intend to release the information outside of the Requirements Team.

Interested parties are strongly advised that the Department is not seeking proprietary information. All information contained in this announcement is preliminary as well as subject to modification and is in no way binding on the Government. Failure to respond to this notice will not preclude an interested party in participating in a future related or unrelated solicitation.

Vendor Questions