RFI_Student_Registration.docx

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) Student Online Registration System

Purpose

The Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) issues this Request for Information (RFI) for the purpose of identifying vendors who have the capacity and experience to provide an online system to register students to attend the DoDEA schools. DoDEA expects to award one contract for a base year and five option years.

This RFI is issued for informational purposes to locate capable businesses. DoDEA is conducting market research and desires input from the industry to assist in requirements planning. The information requested by this RFI will be used within the DoDEA to facilitate the decision making process and will not be disclosed outside of the agency. Please note: This is not a commercial solicitation and DoDEA will not be responsible for any costs incurred by interested parties in responding to this RFI.

Background

DoDEA, as one of only two Federally-operated school systems, is responsible for planning, directing, coordinating, and managing prekindergarten through 12th grade educational programs on behalf of the Department of Defense (DoD). DoDEA is globally positioned, operating 165 brick-and-mortar schools in eight districts located in seven states, 11 foreign countries, Guam, and Puerto Rico. DoDEA employs over 8,000 educators who serve more than 72,000 children. DoDEA also has a fully accredited virtual high school located in Virginia with teaching hubs in Europe and the Pacific.

DoDEA is committed to ensuring that all school-aged children of military families are provided a world-class education that prepares them for postsecondary education and/or career success and to be leading contributors in their communities as well as in our 21st century globalized society.

DoDEA operates as a field activity of the Office of the Secretary of Defense (Personnel and Readiness). It is headed by a director who oversees all agency functions from DoDEA headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia. DoDEA's schools are divided into three geographic areas: Europe, the Pacific, and Americas.

Aspen is the Student Information System (SIS) used by DoDEA. Aspen does not include an online registration process. DoDEA currently uses an internally developed online registration system that does not include the necessary fields to fully complete a student’s registration and doesn’t interface with Aspen. Therefore, DoDEA is engaging in market research to verify if vendors can provide a viable online registration solution. The student online registration system shall be an interactive web-based solution that is secure, has optimal up-time, eliminates duplication of student records, works with mobile devices, and integrates with the Aspen SIS.

General Information

Please provide your company name, DUNS number, CAGE number, business size, and complete contact information for your point(s) of contact. Anticipated NAICS is 511210, small business size $38.5M. Please provide any other relevant information, such as NAICS code(s), GSA number, etc.

Requirement Summary

1. Student Registration, Enrollment and Demographics

DoDEA seeks a commercial, off- the-shelf (COTS) product that provides a comprehensive registration workflow to collect and manage all aspects of student registration and enrollment, including parent information (sponsor and spouse), emergency contact information, and student health information. The proposed solution must provide a means for DoDEA to collect information from users by mirroring DoDEA internal forms (ex. Form 600, 620, and 700).

The COTS system shall provide a solution for parents to enter registration information and upload supporting documentation for initial enrollment, to be verified and approved by school registrar. When the registrar accepts the enrollment, the data should automatically populate the necessary registration fields within the SIS (Aspen). The system shall include an online process for initial registration and re-registration. System requirements include, but are not limited to the following:

1) Provides for a self-service pre-enrollment kiosk or online access for parent entry of initial enrollment information to be available for review and approval by registrar.

2) Includes safeguards to help prevent registrars from creating duplicate enrollments and enrolling a student who has been in the system before.

3) Permits DoDEA to determine which data fields are required to enroll students.

4) Provides the ability to alert users of missing data and prevent users from completing registration process without the missing data.

5) Allows pre-registration of a student.

6) Identifies a variety of addresses to include physical, duty and mailing.

7) Accommodates non-US residential addresses and P.O. boxes.

8) Accommodates non-US telephone numbers.

9) Prompts user to auto populate family address and other parent data for all siblings that register in a DoDEA school.

10) Provides users the ability to attach scanned documents/attachments to support the enrollment process.

11) Provides the ability to "Quick Enrollment" so that the student can be placed and scheduled. Flags this student to denote data entry must be completed.

12) Includes software maintenance to provide regular upgrades and documentation to fix software flaws and security problems.

Request #1 Briefly explain the way your system meets the Student Registration, Enrollment and Demographics requirements.

2. Usability and Breadth of Features: DoDEA seeks a comprehensive student online registration system that provides clear, unambiguous direction for navigation and common tasks performed within the system by all stakeholders. The solution shall employ the use of visual user feedback for interactions during form validation, and include the use of tooltips, callouts, flyovers or attendants to assist users in performing routine tasks. The solution shall be judicious in its display of pertinent information within key interfaces to facilitate ease of use. The system should function appropriately using mobile devices and across multiple browsers, including Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Firefox, and Safari on both PC and Macintosh platforms.

Request #2 Briefly explain the usability and breadth of features that your system provides.

3. System Features and Organizational Administration: DoDEA seeks an online registration system that provides a mechanism for parent account creation (self-service or account rostering) and allows SIS administrative staff to configure, tailor and manage the deployed functions and features of the proposed solution, and ensure that access to each function, feature and associated data elements are restricted based on user definable and assigned roles and permissions both individually and in mass/bulk where necessary and permissible.

Request #3 Briefly explain the system features and organizational administration that your system provides to include the parent account creation process.

4. Data Validation: DoDEA requires an online registration system that includes a process for registrars to validate student data before applying it to the SIS.

Request #4 Briefly explain your systems data validation process.

5. Data Transfer: DoDEA requires a student online registration system that includes a mechanism for integrating with the DoDEA SIS (Aspen) for both data imports and exports.

Request #5 Briefly explain your data transfer process.

6. Re-Registration Process: DoDEA requires a student online registration system that includes a process for families to re-register students throughout the school year. Because DoDEA has transient student population, re-registration may include mid-year transfers. The re-registration process would provide users the means to update existing information (ex. address, contacts, and phone numbers) and provide new/updated documentation.

Request #6 Briefly explain the re-registration process your system provides, including receiving existing data from the SIS.

7. Document Collection: DoDEA requires a student online registration system that includes a process for users to upload supporting registration documentation. If vendors’ COTS have the capability, DoDEA requires that users have an option for mobile document scanning as well.

Request #7 Briefly describe the way your system handles documentation upload, storage, and mobile document scanning.

8. Technical Support, System Maintenance, and Upgrades: DoDEA is a global, 24-7 school system with very little down time.

Request #8 Please provide your technical support process to include hours of operation. Please provide your system maintenance, and upgrade process as well.

9. Pricing:

Request #9

Please provide pricing arrangements for a cloud-based solution to include technical support, maintenance, updates, and licensing. For example, are licenses purchased for a year at a time? Are licenses good for the life of the software? Is there an annual maintenance cost? Are updates included in the initial purchase? Are prices based on per-user? If possible, for planning purposes, please provide a rough order of magnitude in pricing for approximately 72,000 students.

SUSPENSE

DoDEA requires responses to this questionnaire by close of business, October 10, 2017. Please email your responses to John Baggett and Michael Ridley.