Sole Source Justification under FAR part 8.4_Redacted.pdf

licensing and regulatory requirements, workforce standards, and supports for quality and technical assistance across funding streams can reduce burden, improve program efficiency, increase parental access to ECE, and support child and family outcomes.

This requirement will build on prior efforts to identify and elevate financing approaches for states that most effectively align funding streams to both reduce burden and increase the reach of ECE funding. This project will provide ACF with critical evidence to understand how federal early care and education programs can achieve the Agency’s mission and vision of (1) supporting federalism & local leadership by providing actionable insights into how states and localities can leverage Head Start and other federal funding streams for early care and education (ECE) to best meet local needs, (2) promoting quality early learning environments and improved child outcomes by understanding how to leverage existing funding sources to best meet the preferences of families with young children consistent with their unique needs, and (3) promoting work and self-sufficiency by exploring how leveraging funds can expand the availability of ECE services that allow parents to work.

4. Authority Cited and Rationale: Authority of the FSS Program, Title III of the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949 (41 U.S.C. 251, et seq.); Title 40 U.S.C. 501, Services for Executive Agencies, as implemented at FAR 8.401 and GSAM/R 538.7104-3(b)(1).

GSAM/R 538.7104-3(b)(1)(iii)- The order should be issued on a sole source basis in the interest of economy and efficiency because it is a logical follow-on to an FSS order already issued on a competitive basis.

Per the Federal Supply Schedule Ordering Procedures, the Contracting Officer can make an award on a limited basis when the new work is a logical follow-on to an original Federal Supply Schedule order and doing so would be in the interest of economy and efficiency to the Federal Government. The proposed requirement is a follow-on to task order Financing for Early Care and Education Study (47QRAA-20D-001M/ 140D0422F0154), which was awarded via the General Services Administration (GSA)’s Multiple Award Schedule under a competitive basis.

The new requirement will build on work conducted under the prior task order, specifically to complete analyses of data collected under the prior task order that are only available to the incumbent, conduct a follow-up survey to the survey fielded under the original task order, and conduct other data collections with early care and education (ECE) providers in response to emerging Agency needs. All of these activities, described in more detail below, require deep expertise of the financing of ECE systems at the federal and state levels, which the incumbent developed over the course of the prior task order. This expertise as well as the incumbent’s access to the survey data gathered under the prior task order, are essential to the production of high-quality research with timely and accurate findings that will ensure this requirement can inform the work of the Office of Early Childhood and meet the Administration’s and ACF’s priorities. Awarding to a new vendor would substantially delay the project timeline and restrict the Agency’s ability to conduct longitudinal data collection efforts to inform the ongoing training and technical assistance, policy development, management and other mission critical activities of the Office of Early Childhood. Below is an outline of the specific reasons that awarding the proposed requirement to the incumbent is in the interest of economy and efficiency.

1. The proposed vendor has access to and expertise in complex data systems that are necessary to complete the work required under the proposed task order, generating cost savings and efficiencies in the amount of time it will take to complete analyses of these data and conduct a follow-up survey.

a. Financing for Early Care and Education State Administrator Survey. The proposed vendor is the only vendor with existing access to this data and has extensive expertise in interpreting and using the data. The proposed vendor designed and conducted the survey and developed the associated data documentation. No other vendor has current data access as this data cannot be archived for secondary use due to the risk of disclosure of survey participants. Because only 3 or fewer participants with specific administrative roles per state were sampled, it would be very challenging to mask the identity of survey respondents in a way that would be necessary to make this data publicly available. As such, there are no plans to make the data available beyond the incumbent. A key task in the proposed task order is analysis of this data to yield insights into how states approach ECE financing.

Therefore, awarding to a different vendor would prevent further analyses of this dataset and substantially impede the ability of this task order to provide information to ACF that can support the execution of Administration priorities. If a new vendor were to receive the contract and be required to re-do the surveys, it could cost the Government between per vendor estimates. In addition, the proposed task order includes a requirement to conduct a follow-up survey to further understand outstanding issues related to how Head Start could be integrated into state ECE systems. Because a follow-up survey would require reaching out to participants in the original survey using their personally identifiable information (such as their names, positions, and email addresses) gathered during the original survey, awarding to a different vendor would similarly prevent the Agency from completing this activity and better understanding how to support states in integrating ECE funding streams.

b. National Survey of Early Care and Education 2024. The proposed vendor has extensive expertise accessing and using this restricted access data source to conduct research and evaluation about ECE financing approaches. Accessing and analyzing this data source requires specialized expertise with the methodological capabilities and limitations of this complex data source as it pertains to producing estimates related to financing of ECE. Because the incumbent vendor designed and conducted the survey and developed the associated data documentation, it has specialized expertise about the complexities of producing estimates. For any other vendors, accessing this data requires an application process anticipated to take at least four to six months and the proposed vendor has existing access. Existing data access would save the Government from duplicating resources and time associated with that application process. The highly specialized expertise of the proposed vendor pertaining to using this particular data source is essential to this requirement and the efficient production of accurate, high-quality products that address the Government’s questions.

2. The proposed vendor has unique subject matter and technical expertise of critical relevance to this requirement. Specifically, this requirement requires expertise conducting research related to the financing of ECE systems, including research and/or evaluation related to all of the following:

• existing funding streams that support services for ECE, including Head Start, the Child

Care and Development Fund (CCDF), and state pre-k;

• state approaches to financing ECE systems that coordinate across various funding streams;

• local Head Start program approaches to financing ECE services leveraging multiple funding streams;

• conducting analyses of ECE financing data in response to requests from the Agency; and

• conducting surveys with state ECE administrators.

This honed methodological and technical expertise is necessary and essential to achieving the overall goals of this task order and would take extensive time and, thus, increased costs for a different vendor to develop. This subject matter and technical expertise is highly specific and unique and is a result of the proposed vendor’s work on the Financing for Early Care and Education Study (47QRAA-20D-001M/140D0422F0154). For example, the proposed vendor has developed extensive expertise conducting research related to financing of ECE systems at both the state and local program level. Under the prior task order, they conducted surveys with both state administrators and Head Start program directors to understand how various existing funding streams for ECE services are currently used to serve children and families. Additionally, they are conducting two case studies to better understand how choices about financing at the state level inform the choices available to Head Start program directors. The Contractor will need to rely on substantial knowledge gained as part of these activities to complete the requirements of the proposed task order.

In summary, the incumbent’s technical and methodological knowledge as well as access to unique data from the prior task order create several efficiencies and time and cost savings to the Government. This technical and methodological knowledge and data access have been cultivated over the entire period of performance of the existing task order. Hence, the incumbent will be positioned to execute the required tasks of the proposed requirement on day one, ultimately resulting in the best value to the Government. Therefore, this task order must be issued on a sole-source basis to the proposed vendor in order to obtain the required services in an economical and efficient manner.

5. Market Research:

The Government’s market research, including a request for information (RFI), shows there is no other vendor that currently has the highly specialized and unique expertise and data access identified above to provide services at the level of quality required. As part of the work on the existing task order, a review of existing relevant knowledge was conducted along with expert consultations. These activities found a lack of research studies focused on the specific topics of relevance to this requirement and identified a great deal of need for additional research and evaluation to meet the Government’s information needs related to financing of ECE systems, particularly the role that Head Start plays in state ECE systems. In fact, the work conducted under the existing task order represents the only nationally representative survey of ECE financing that includes Head Start programs and state administrators. Vendor responses to the RFI confirmed this, with vendors pointing to related work they have completed but no vendor other than the incumbent being able to demonstrate access to the specific data needed to address the Agency’s objectives under this solicitation. In addition, because highly specialized and unique expertise and data access cultivated from performance on the existing task order is critical to successful performance for this requirement, we were unable to identify other vendors with the necessary expertise and data access described above to successfully carryout this work at the level of quality required in a cost and schedule efficient manner to ensure the Government receives the best value. If another vendor were to be selected for this award, the vendor would have to complete new surveys and case studies to collect the data needed to address Agency needs. Per vendor responses to the RFI, collecting this new information could cost the Government up to

The Government must procure this requirement as a sole source to the incumbent because they are the only vendor with the expertise and data access integral to successfully completing the activities for this requirement without causing substantial inefficiencies and increased costs to the Government as well as limiting what the Government is able to accomplish.

6. Procurement history:

a. Contractor: NORC Contract or Order Number: 47QRAA-20D-001M/140D0422F0154 Award Date and Period of Performance: 02/09/2022 to 02/08/2027 Value (including all options):

Competitive Status: Competitive through the MAS Authority formerly relied upon if Not Competed: N/A

7. Actions to Foster Competition for Future, Similar Requirements:

As mentioned in Section 4 above, the incumbent is the only source capable of providing the unique and highly specialized services that are necessary to complete the service component tasks in the proposed requirement. This is a one time requirement and there are no known future requirements that would be dependent on the expertise to be gained from this requirement and there no known plans to subsequently acquire the same type of services. One