ITN 2024-69 Addendum 1 QAs 1-22-24.pdf

ITN 2024-69 Page 1 of 5

FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

BUREAU OF CONTRACTS, GRANTS AND PROCUREMENT

MANAGEMENT SERVICES

325 West Gaines Street 332 Turlington Building

Tallahassee, Florida 32399-0400

Addendum #1

RFQ NO.: ITN 2024-69

Teachers Classroom Supply Assistance Program

January 23, 2024

This addendum is being issued to provide the Answers to Questions submitted timely by vendors during the Question and Answers period.

Please be advised all questions are keyed as submitted.

1. Under pg. 16, Program Payment and Re-payment: The sentence seems to suggest that the contractor would have to provide the school funds on credit in advance, which does not seem to be the standard model for prepaid cards. Could you clarify the flow? Can we assume that there will be a funding amount provided initially to a set account, and to provide a statement electronically on the 15th of every month thereafter?

Answer: These are prepaid cards. Each district or charter school decides on a set amount (no less than $300) for each eligible teacher based on its allocation. The school districts and/or charter schools that contract with the selected vendor will remit the funds to the vendor with the initial payment and subsequent regular payments. Both parties can negotiate the frequency of payments (e.g. monthly).

2. MCCs: The MCC can only be set (Closed-loop) uniformly across all school districts or charter schools, and it cannot be switched on/off only for certain specific/selected school districts unless you agree to hold multiple programs, which can be very costly. Are you able to accept this requirement of a uniform closed-loop requirement?

Answer: No. Restrictions on Merchant Category Codes (MCC) are to be defined by each participating school district/charter school. It is highly unlikely that all participants will agree on an identical set of restrictions.

3. TDD Capabilities: Could you provide further examples or use-case on the gaps faced by the demographic group, or devices that they use, so we can ensure 100% compatibility?

Answer: No as the parameters of your question are unclear. If your proposed solution presents limitations on compatibility, identify those limitations in your proposal.

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4. Enterprise-wide ability for reporting, including level three transaction information: could you elaborate what categories of information would you require? We recommend a list of suggested columns for an easier understanding that we can follow to fit your needs.

Answer: Please refer to Deliverable 3 on page 15 of the ITN.

5. Will all districts be required to use debit cards to administer the TCSAP?

Answer: No. It is optional for the districts/charter schools to participate.

6. Is the State open to proposals offering a solution other than a debit card to fulfill the legislative intent of the program?

Answer: No. The Department will utilize the debit card option at this time.

7. May vendors submit more than one proposal if different solutions are offered?

Answer: The vendor can list two options under one proposal.

8. What process are Florida districts using currently to administer these TCSAP funds?

Answer: Currently this program is administered by each school district. Many of the school districts contract with a vendor to manage this program.

9. What technical security measures must the vendor meet?

Answer: Industry standards should apply for debit card and banking transactions.

10. Would a solution that includes fraud prevention measures related to actual purchases be appealing to the State?

Answer: You can include it in the proposal.

11. What are the allowable spending categories for teachers to spend these funds?

Answer: Pursuant to s. 1012.71 F.S., “classroom teachers shall use the funds to purchase, on behalf of the school district or charter school, classroom materials and supplies for the public school students assigned to them, and may not be used to purchase equipment. The funds shall be used to supplement the materials and supplies otherwise available to classroom teachers.”

12. How much detail does the State wish to have in data reporting?

Answer: Please refer to Deliverable 3 on page 15.

13. Will evidence of NIST compliance in another State be acceptable to show the fulfillment of the requirement in section 5.15 for 60GG-2 Information Technology Standards? Answer: The vendor should submit the IT standards, and our IT team will evaluate whether it is compliant.

14. Is the State paying for the service fees on behalf of the districts?

Answer: No. School districts/charter schools participating in the contract will pay for the fees.

15. Is the state open to a transaction fee by percentage of the transaction total?

Answer: School districts/charter schools participating in the contract will pay for the fees, if any.

The bidders should include the proposed fees, if any, in their submitted responses

a. If no, is the state only open to a flat fee per transaction?

Answer: Please refer to the answer above (in question 15).

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16. 3.2 Background - How many of the 184,062 DOE employees received a debit card loaded with funds during the 2023-2024 school year?

Answer: This ITN is for teachers to obtain cards, not DOE employees and this is a new undertaking so there is no historical data.

• What was the total dollar amount distributed for the 2023-2024 school year?

Answer: The dollar amount for FY 2023-24 is at least $300 per eligible teacher, varying by school districts and charter schools.

• What was the total dollar amount returned to DOE as unspent at the end of the school year?

Answer: N/A

17. What is the anticipated number of cards the new vendor will supply in 2024?

Answer: This is dependent on how many school districts and charter schools decide to participate.

18. Who is the incumbent provider?

Answer: Please refer to the answer to question 8.

19. Do you have the ability to reload a teacher’s card each year or is a new card issued?

Answer: Respondents should include either option as part of their technical reply.

20. 6.1 Deliverables - Account Set Up - What MCC codes are required to be restricted?

Answer: The participating school districts and charter schools will define the restrictions upon electing to use the alternative selected through this ITN.

21. How often are funds loaded onto the card?

Answer: This will be defined by the district/charter school when it elects to use the alternative selected through this ITN.

22. What is the average dollar amount of each load?

Answer: Each eligible teacher gets an allocation of no less than $300. The exact amount is set by each district/charter school.

23. Do you require the ability for a cardholder to access cash at an ATM, bank teller withdrawal or cash back at point of sale?

Answer: No.

24. Will each school be setting up their own funding accounts?

Answer: Each district or charter school participating in this contract will remit funds to fund its eligible teachers.

25. Will each school location be replacing cards or one centralized location?

Answer: Details such as this should be defined by the vendor and the district/charter when the district/charter elects to utilize the alternative selected through this ITN.

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26. Does each District/Charter school need access to contractor portal for funding cards in their districts?

Answer: Not necessarily for funding purposes. The funding can be done outside a portal, but the district/charter school administrator should get access to a portal to access data. See Deliverable 3 on page 15.

27. Can you please confirm how many different locations the contractor will be mailing cards to?

28. What cardholder information is currently passed to set up a new account? (full name, address, date of birth, tax id, etc)

29. Program and Transaction Data Reports - Does the current card program/vendor offer level three transaction information?

Answer: Currently this program is administered by each school district. Many of the school districts contract with a vendor to manage this program.

30. What is the # of Districts/Charter schools for transactional reporting?

Answer: This is dependent on how many school districts and charter schools decide to participate.

31. What is meant to be included in Central reconciliation Report?

district/charter elects to utilize the alternative selected through this ITN. The goal of the central reconciliation report is to reconcile between funding, posted charges, pending charges and balance by account.

32. Program Payment and Re-Payment - Can you provide an example of an unallowed transaction?

Answer: An example would be restaurants. No food purchase is allowed with the card.

33. Does DOE or the Contractor determine if the transaction is unauthorized/unallowed and therefore requires repayment?

Answer: The cardholder has the primary responsibility for ensuring the card is used to purchase allowable items. The district/charter school administrator may also review the submitted invoices to verify that transactions are allowable. The vendor’s responsibility is to limit the card use excluding unallowable merchant categories such as restaurants/gas/utilities, etc.

34. Contractor shall be responsible for establishing and maintaining a process and procedure for account re-payment for unauthorized transactions.

• Can you please provide more clarity on what is being requested here as debit cards are pre-funded by the school/agency?

Answer: Yes, debit cards are pre-funded. This re-payment speaks to the process the vendor should establish to handle unauthorized or allowable purchases.

• Can you please provide an example of an unauthorized transaction as it pertains to this section?

Answer: Please refer to the answer to question 32.

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35. Financial Consequence - As debit cards are prefunded what payment would these penalties come from?

Answer: Financial consequences are charges paid by a vendor to the State of Florida if the vendor fails to meet its contractual obligations.

• Can you clarify the financial penalty of $100 and what that would be deducted from?

Answer: Please refer to the answer above (in question 35).

• Can you clarify the financial penalty of 10% of the payment and what that would be deducted from?

Answer: Please refer to the answer above (in question 35).

• Are these penalties in place today?

Answer: Currently this program is administered by each school district. Many of the school districts contract with a vendor to manage this program.

• Has the DOE ever charged the current vendor penalties?

Answer: Currently this program is administered by each school district. Many of the school districts contract with a vendor to manage this program.

36. What is your anticipated go live date?

Answer: This will be negotiated between the vendor and school districts/charter schools.

• Will all schools/districts go live at the same time?

Answer: No. Districts may decide to participate at varying points of time.