RFP 25-62F-001 - District-Wide Mass Communication System_QAResponseFinal.pdf

POUDRE SCHOOL DISTRICT R-1

Request for Proposals

District-Wide Mass Communication System

RFP #25-62F-001

Question 1: Accessibility Maturity

Do you have internal WCAG compliance expertise, or will you need external guidance?

Poudre School District has some internal WCAG compliance expertise within our team, particularly in general accessibility best practices. However, we would welcome suggestions or options for external support, especially in specialized areas such as ATAG (Authoring Tool

Accessibility Guidelines), to enhance our efforts and ensure comprehensive compliance across all platforms.

Question 2: Accessibility Maturity

Does the District have a formal digital accessibility policy in place?

You can review our current accessibility statements and plans on our website at:

https://www.psdschools.org/your-district/about-psd/accessibility

Question 3: Accessibility Maturity

Who is responsible for ongoing accessibility compliance on these websites in particular (internal team, third-party vendor, hybrid approach)? - If an internal team, do you have a designated accessibility officer or team overseeing compliance efforts?

Please review our accessibility plan available on the link in answer 2.

https://www.psdschools.org/your-district/about-psd/accessibility

Question 4: Accessibility Maturity

When was the last time you conducted a manual, site-wide content audit for WCAG compliance on the District’s flagship website (including embedded content, PDFs, timed media, etc.)?

Poudre School District uses SiteImprove for ongoing automated scanning and review of content on district-hosted websites. This includes scans of embedded content and PDFs, which are evaluated for accessibility issues in alignment with WCAG 2.1 A and AA standards.

Question 5: Testing & Quality Assurance

Do you conduct user testing with individuals with disabilities? If so, how often, what methods do you use (e.g., screen reader testing, keyboard navigation testing, usability sessions), and do you work with a partner?

We do internal software testing to ensure that the resources and tools that we have approved for use in the district can accommodate students with disabilities. This is an ongoing effort. We do not currently work with any external partners to audit or test our software and systems. We do look for recommendations from our vendors for support.

Question 6: Testing & Quality Assurance

Which automated accessibility testing tools are in place now? (a) Pre-deployment: WCAG testing tools used during QA. (b) On deployment: Key user journeys/functionality tested during code deployment. (c) Post-deployment: Do you use automated scanning tools?

Poudre School District (PSD) currently uses SiteImprove as our primary automated accessibility testing tool for district-hosted websites. It supports ongoing compliance monitoring aligned with WCAG 2.1 A and AA standards.

Question 7: Testing & Quality Assurance

How often do you run manual accessibility tests on specific pages or workflows? Are these tests regularly scheduled, or triggered by events?

SiteImprove provides weekly automated accessibility reports via email, which inform our ongoing review process. Based on these reports, we prioritize and manually test pages or workflows that show recurring issues or that are critical to user engagement. Our goal is to maintain an 85–90% accessibility compliance rate across all district-supported school and support websites.

Question 8: Testing & Quality Assurance

With respect to content authoring, in addition to enforcing accessible content, do you require that the authoring experience on the District’s new website is WCAG/ATAG compliant?

Yes, teachers, staff, and students need to be able to access digital media and applications. The authoring experience does need to be WCAG/ATAG compliant for our teachers and staff working in the system.

Question 9: Content Creation & Management

How much content is currently on your website? (e.g., number of HTML pages, files, images, PDFs, embedded media)?

Poudre School District's website contains thousands of HTML pages, files, images, PDFs, and embedded media across the District and individual school sites. Due to the decentralized nature of content management, with each school and department managing their own sections, the total volume is substantial.

If specific content counts are required (e.g., exact number of pages or files), we are happy to gather that information; however, it will require additional time to compile accurately.

Question 10: Content Creation & Management

How often do you add or update content to your website?

The frequency of content updates varies across Poudre School District websites. The District’s main website is updated regularly by the Communications team based on relevant events, announcements, and departmental needs. Content updates may occur daily or weekly, depending on the volume and urgency of information.

Each school manages its own website independently, including all content updates. As a result, the frequency of updates can vary significantly from one school to another—some may update content weekly, while others may do so less frequently, based on staffing and communication needs.

Question 11: Content Creation & Management

How many users have permission to create or publish content on the District’s website?

On the District’s website:

• 7 Communications staff have site-wide editing capabilities.

• 83 users have group edit permissions, allowing them to edit content specific to their department or assigned sections.

• 4 technical staff have full administrative access.

In total, 94 users have some level of permission to create or publish content on the District’s website, with varying levels of access based on their roles.

Question 12: Content Creation & Management

How do you train new content editors, and institutional users to create WCAG-compliant content? (a) How often are new editors onboarded? (b) What does onboarding look like for an

IIE content editor? (c) How do you provide continued training?

Poudre School District identifies Web Content Administrators and Editors at each school and department to manage site content. New editors are onboarded as needed and required to complete Drupal training, which includes WCAG 2.1 A and AA accessibility guidelines and an overview of editor responsibilities.

Ongoing support includes periodic live trainings, virtual office hours, and access to a dedicated support site: https://websitetraining.psdschools.org. This ensures editors are equipped to create and maintain accessible, compliant web content.

Question 13: Budget & Timeline

What can you tell us about your budget? Understanding your budget will help potential partners right-size their support plans. For example, how much does the District spend to maintain the website and communications platforms now?

Poudre School District will not be sharing budgetary information at this time.

Question 14: Budget & Timeline

Do solicitation rules require that the District contract with one vendor? Or, can the District partner with more than one agency?

As per section 6.6 of the solicitation: “The District reserves the right to request additional information, negotiate, award, or negotiate an agreement further with one or more Vendor.”

Question 15: international access

Could you clarify what you mean by the need for the mass notification system to support international access? Is there a use case that you can give?

https://websitetraining.psdschools.org/

If guardians or emergency contacts have international contact information, they should still be accessible via the mass notification system.

Question 16: Data Export & Integration

Could you clarify this requirement: Provides automated reports, API endpoints for real-time data exchange, or secure SFTP transfers for bulk data exports. What kind of automated reports?

Reports that have to do with data exchange/exports? Could you give a use case?

The requirement refers to the ability of the communications platform to support secure, automated methods of sharing and exporting data between the vendor’s system and Poudre

School District’s systems. This includes but isn’t limited to:

• Automated Reports: These could include logs of message delivery, user activity reports, opt-in/opt-out statuses, communication engagement metrics, or error/failure reports— automatically generated and scheduled for delivery or accessible via an interface or API.

• API Endpoints: We are looking for real-time or near real-time data exchange capabilities via secure APIs. A use case might involve syncing user information (e.g., staff, students, and families) between the district’s SIS and the communication platform to ensure accurate targeting.

• Secure SFTP Transfers: For bulk exports, such as periodic downloads of message logs, contact databases, or archival reports, we require a secure method such as SFTP to ensure data privacy and integrity.

Use Case Example: On a daily basis, student and staff rosters may change due to enrollment or staffing updates. The platform should be able to ingest updated user data via SFTP or API to ensure communications reach the appropriate recipients. Additionally, the district may want to pull engagement data or delivery reports weekly via an automated report to analyze communication effectiveness.

Security is a top priority. Any data exchange must follow industry-standard encryption protocols and comply with applicable data privacy regulations.