Redacted_LSJ_1.pdf

LIMITED-SOURCES JUSTIFICATION

AUTHORITY: FAR 8.405-6 and 40 U.S.C 501

Solicitation Number: 140D0425Q0506

This acquisition is conducted under the authority of the General Services Administration (GSA) Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) Program.

1. Identification of the agency and contracting activity, and specific identification of the document as a “Limited-Sources Justification.”

This document serves as a Limited-Sources Justification for Support for Analytic Capacity of National Survey of Early Care and Education (NSECE) Data 2025. The contracting activity procuring this requirement is the Department of the Interior (DOI), Interior Business Center (IBC), Acquisition Services Directorate (AQD), Division 1, Branch 3 on behalf of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Administration of Children and Families (ACF), Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE).

2. Nature and/or description of the action being approved.

The purpose of this document is to outline the rationale for procuring Support for Analytic Capacity of NSECE Data 2025 from National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago. This is a follow-on task order for an existing requirement for ACF OPRE. ACF procured and awarded the current task order HHSP233201500048I / 75P00120F37018 as a sole source under HHS’s Program Support Center (PSC) Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract. The follow-on requirement is anticipated to be procured on a limited-sources basis in accordance with FAR 8.405-6(a)(1)(i)(B) with only one source having the capability to provide the services required at the level of quality required because the services are unique and highly specialized. The follow-on requirement is anticipated to be awarded as a single task order placed under GSA MAS Special Item Number (SIN) 541611 – Management and Financial Consulting, Acquisition and Grants Management Support, and Business Program and Project Management Services.

3. A description of the supplies or services required to meet the agency’s needs (including the estimated value).

The requirement is designed to provide a contractual mechanism to support and enhance data from the NSECE 2012, NSECE 2019, NSECE COVID-19 Follow up, and the NSECE 2024 and follow up studies, in order to improve the analytic capacity for optimal use of the archived NSECE data sets by supporting creation of restricted use files for archiving and analyses, creation of technical resources and providing assistance to users of the data sets, implementation of enhancements to both public- and restricted-use data files, and for analysis of all NSECE data available to ACF including analyses to track changes in child care and early education in the years between the study cohorts. By the end of this five-

Solicitation Number: 140D0425Q0506

ACF OPRE has a follow-on requirement to continue support for analytic capacity for the NSECE Data. The goal of this requirement is to prepare, enhance, and disseminate analytic files of data collected under the task orders with NORC at the University of Chicago for the NSECE 2012, NSECE 2019, NSECE COVID-19 Follow Up, NSECE 2024, and NSECE 2025 Follow Up studies. The NSECE data was collected from households with children under age 13, center- and home-based childcare and early education providers serving children under age 13, and the early childhood workforce working in those programs. The resulting data to be used for secondary analyses are the key products from these NSECE studies and have proven to be an invaluable resource and source of information to the agency and the field of childcare and early education at large. The incumbent NSECE contractor, National Opinion Research Center (NORC), has unique expertise in the design, methodologies, data repository, transformation of variables to reduce disclosure of study participants, and resulting data products from the NSECE studies as demonstrated through their previous and current work to support the use of the NSECE 2012, NSECE 2019, and NSECE COVID-19 Follow Up data.

In Federal Fiscal Years 2015 and 2020, ACF funded two consecutive task orders, HHSP23337001T and 75P00120F37018, with NORC at the University of Chicago to enhance the NSECE data the NORC collected under the 2012, 2019, COVID-19 Follow up studies and to create restricted-use data files to facilitate the use of the data for secondary analyses that could address many critical policy-relevant questions in the field of child care and early education. Since then, the Enhancing Analytic Capacity of the NSECE Data 2015 task order, HHSP23337001T, and the Support for Analytic Capacity of NSECE Data 2020 task order, 75P00120F37018, projects have created multiple datasets for archiving and analyses; have worked with approved researchers in the field to create analytic files from the restricted-use data, including conducting analyses of those data to ensure that the confidentiality requirements of the data are met; and have conducted complex disclosure risk analyses before releasing analytic files to the researchers for secondary analyses.

These projects have also developed technical and training resources to facilitate use of all data created from the NSECE.

In addition to the key tasks described above that NORC at the University of Chicago has performed, the Enhancing Analytic Capacity of NSECE Data 2015 and the Support for Analytic Capacity of NSECE 2020 projects have conducted dozens of analyses on public-and restricted-use data from the NSECE studies in response to requests from ACF.

Findings from those analyses have informed policy priorities as well as filled gaps in the knowledge base on characteristics of programs and workforce in childcare and early education, households’ preferences and childcare decisions for their young children, the relationships between supply of, and demand for, childcare and early education and other key topics of interest to childcare and early education stakeholders. The anticipated task order to be solicited and awarded for this follow-on requirement will continue to support and enhance the previous NSECE data studies supported in the previous task orders as well as the newly collected data for the NSECE 2024 and NSECE 2025 Follow Up studies. In order to successfully perform the service component tasks required under this requirement, the anticipated contractor needs to have the unique expertise in the study design and methodology of the NSECE studies (previously conducted and newly collected) and have highly specialized experience in collecting, preparing, transforming and analyzing the data from all the cohorts of the NSECE studies.

NORC at the University of Chicago, has been involved in the planning and implementation of the NSECE studies since its design in 2007. NORC at the University of Chicago has conducted hundreds of analyses with the NSECE data, including analyses of highly restricted data that involved personal information from survey respondents. NORC at the University of Chicago has implemented data security protocols in order to disseminate data files for researchers and analysts to conduct secondary analyses while mitigating disclosure risk of personal information from study participants. Under the original studies, NORC at the University of Chicago obtained authorization to collect and hold raw and highly restricted data based on approvals from Institutional Review Boards and by meeting Protection of Human Subjects requirements. The proposed contractor has unique access to all the data for the NSECE studies for the purposes under this requirement. The proposed contractor for the anticipated award will perform services that will build onto the work already conducted on the NSECE studies to support the use of the data collected through the studies, to respond to requests for specialized analyses from the agency, and to provide technical support and training to data users in order to ensure the appropriate use of the data for answering questions of interest at the national and state levels.

5. A determination by the ordering activity contracting officer that the order represents the best value consistent with FAR 8.404(d).

The Contracting Officer (CO) will determine the anticipated price will be fair and reasonable through the use of the GSA MAS program and through the program’s schedule pricing. The rates used by GSA MAS program schedule contract holders have been determined at the time of schedule contract award to be fair and reasonable. To further ensure the price is reasonable, price evaluation will be conducted in accordance with FAR 8.405-2(d). In accordance with DOI-AAAP-0024, Enhancing Competition, and due to only one quote being received, the price analysis tools and techniques at FAR 15.404-1(b)(2) may be used to further determine the price fair and reasonable.

6. A description of the market research conducted among schedule holders and the results or a statement of the reason market research was not conducted.

Market research was conducted by researching the acquisition history of this requirement. The same support has been provided for under task orders HHSP23337001T and 75P00120F37018. These task orders were procured and awarded by HHS under HHS’s PSC IDIQ as a sole source award to NORC at the University of Chicago.

Further market research was conducted by reviewing ACF OPRE’s recent and detailed market research report and supporting documents. Over the past year and in preparation of this follow-on requirement, the customer conducted three Requests for Information (RFIs) from April through December 2024. The RFIs were issued under GSA’s One Acquisition Solution for Integrated Services (OASIS) Pool 2, SAM.gov, and GSA’s OASIS+ Unrestricted. Based on the results of the RFIs it was determined that only one vendor is fully capable of providing the services required. This vendor, NORC at the University of Chicago, is the incumbent. The other vendors either demonstrated no capabilities or some technical capabilities related to the requirements identified in the

PWS. The vendors with some technical capabilities, however, were limited to specific work and lacked expertise in childcare and early education data and statistical analysis of research-based data on childcare. Additionally, a review of GSA’s eLibrary found that GSA MAS SIN 541611 – Management and Financial Consulting, Acquisition and Grants Management Support, and Business Program and Project Management Services contains vendors that could potentially have the capability of providing the services;

however, it has been determined through market research that no other vendor, except NORC at the University of Chicago, is capable of providing the unique and highly specialized services to meet the requirements identified. NORC at the University of Chicago holds a GSA schedule contract, 47QRAA20D001M, under SIN 541611.

7. Any other facts supporting the justification.

A Request for Quotation (RFQ) will not be released on GSA eBuy as it has been determined that there is only one source capable of providing the Support for Analytic Capacity of NSECE Data 2025 required at the level of quality required because the services are unique and highly specialized. After the placement of the task order, a notice will be posted on SAM.gov along with a redacted copy of the approved Limited-Sources Justification in accordance with the requirements at FAR 8.405-6(a)(2).

8. A statement of the actions, if any, the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers that led to the restricted consideration before any subsequent acquisition for supplies and services is made.

NORC at the University of Chicago is the only source capable of providing the unique and highly specialized services that are necessary to complete the service component tasks in the PWS. ACF OPRE has provided opportunities for other vendors to build capabilities to support the tasks associated with the NSECE studies. Over the years since the initial design and implementation of the NSECE study, the ACF OPRE has made available all data collected under the NSECE project for the field to use and to build familiarity with the public-use and restricted-use data that do not risk disclosure of study participants. In addition, the agency has developed and shared resources to help the field of childcare and early education (CCEE) use the data for analyses, including supports for users of restricted-use data that require special approvals for their use and dissemination of findings from analyses. ACF OPRE will continue to allow the public, researchers, analysts and other interested individuals to have access to the data that will allow vendors to develop skills and experience using the data for analyses and to build expertise on the unique characteristics of the data, that will in turn allow vendors the ability to build capabilities that would allow them to compete under the solicitation for any future requirements. The results of the market research conducted for the previous task order and for this requirement show that no other vendors have built the capabilities necessary to conduct the work under this requirement, reenforcing that NORC at the University of Chicago is the only capable source of performing this requirement.