Task Order 0002 IDEA PWS 12.6.21.docx

U.S. Department of Education Performance Work Statement Institute of Education Sciences National Center for Education Evaluation

Task Order 0002 - Performance Work Statement

EVALUATING PROGRAMS AND STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE THE OUTCOMES OF STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES: DESIGN OF A STUDY OF SPECIAL EDUCATION SPENDING

In awarding the basic ordering agreement (IDIQ) on “Evaluating Programs and Strategies to Improve the Outcomes of Students with Disabilities,” the U.S. Department of Education (ED), Institute of Education Sciences (IES) will also award Task Order 0002, which will develop design options for a study to estimate spending on special education and related services and costs to meet student needs overall and by major needs categories. The tasks and subtasks referred to are those outlined in the IDIQ Performance Work Statement. The Task Order will have an 8-month period of performance and will set the stage for future task orders to complete the descriptive evaluation.

Background

The Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act (IDEA) provides over $13 billion in federal funds each year to assist in providing required special education and related services to the more than 1 in every 10 US students with a disability (SWD). When paired with other federal, state, and local funds, the result is a significant investment intended to support a broad range of activities and to help cover the costs of educating these children that typically exceed average per-pupil expenditures. Since its predecessor in 1975, IDEA aims to provide up to 40% of these excess costs through federal grants to states, but the actual amounts provided consistently cover less than half of what was promised.[footnoteRef:1] This gap continues to attract attention from policymakers at all levels. [1: https://sgp.fas.org/crs/misc/R44624.pdf]

More information about spending on special education is needed to assess, and potentially address, ongoing funding concerns. The most recent detailed, national look was at the 1999-2000 school year, as part of the Special Education Expenditure Project (SEEP)[footnoteRef:2]. Although the project was groundbreaking at the time, subsequent methodological advances may make it possible to provide more reliable and valid estimates. In addition, much of the context for special education spending has changed over the past 20 years, including a consistent increase in the number of students served, budgetary constraints and stimulus funding resulting from the financial crisis in the late 2000s and the recent Covid-19 pandemic, and, importantly, the reauthorization of IDEA in 2004. [2: https://www.air.org/project/center-special-education-finance-csef]

IES seeks a contractor who can be a thought partner in laying the foundation for a new study of special education spending and the cost of meeting student needs. Creativity in study design and methods is paramount, given the likely attention to the eventual study findings and the possibilities of applying the methods to address resource issues in other aspects of education in the future.

Ideally, the new study will address the following questions:

· How much is spent on special education and related services? How does this spending vary across key types of school districts and students?

· How are these funds spent on educating students? Specifically, what share of expenditures goes to instruction, personnel, services, materials/products, etc?

· How much is spent on key activities including transportation, due process, and out-of-school placement?

· How much do federal funds, particularly IDEA, contribute to current spending on special education?

· What resources would be needed to fully meet current special education related needs?

This task order will assess the feasibility of, and design options for such a new study. Spending here refers to expenditures made from federal, state, and local revenue sources that support existing special education and related services. The cost to fully meet all student needs may differ from spending, to the extent that not all needs are currently being met.

Key Design Issues:

The selected contractor shall provide design options to conduct a feasible and credible study of special education spending and costs. In performing the tasks described in this Performance Work Statement ("PWS''), the contractor shall address the following considerations:

· Producing national estimates. Design options shall focus on providing a nationally representative picture of spending on special education activities.

· Feasibility of estimating costs. The study design options shall assess whether and how the extent of unmet need can be credibly estimated.

· Statistical power and sample size requirements. Given that the needs for and ways of providing services vary across the country, the proposed study design options shall ideally be able to estimate spending (and costs) by key school characteristics and the populations they serve. Producing estimates by federal disability categories, for example, is of significant interest.

· Validity and reliability. Design options shall be attentive to the most methodologically sound and rigorous estimation approaches, keeping in mind the need to meet IES’ scientific standards.

· Minimizing burden. Although states and school districts are expected to cooperate with evaluations of federal programs, it is critical that the study design consider school districts’ many responsibilities and limited time for responding to federal requests for information. More difficult and time-consuming requests increase the risk of nonresponse and/or the costs associated with obtaining responses. Thus, the study designs shall minimize burden as much as possible.

· Using existing data. To the extent feasible, the study designs shall consider the availability of data collected for other purposes. Possible data sources include the Local Education Agency (School District) Finance Survey (F-33 https://nces.ed.gov/ccd/f33agency.asp) collected annually by IES’ National Center for Education Statistics. Under a separate contract, IES is conducting a study of district and school uses of federal funds, which extracts federal, state, and local revenues and expenditures from the fiscal data systems of a nationally-representative sample of districts (see https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/projects/evaluation/usesoffunds.asp and https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/08/26/2020-18697/agency-information-collection-activities-comment-request-study-of-district-and-school-uses-of). The information includes district fiscal data, and that of their schools, from five major federal education programs (Titles I, III, III, and IV of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and Part B of IDEA). IES can make this data available, as appropriate.

· Timing. Which year or years should be the focus of a new study is important. The financial stress of the pandemic and flow of stimulus funds intended to help with recovery may affect how much districts and schools have to spend and how they spend for some number of years. The design options shall take this factor into account.

Scope of Work

The specific work to be conducted under Task Order 0002 includes:

Task 1—Meetings

0. Initial Meeting. The contractor shall hold an initial meeting (subtask 1.1) with ED within 10 business days after the effective date of the Task Order to discuss details regarding the tasks, scheduling activities, and other issues related to the task order. Within one week following the meeting, the contractor shall prepare a memo summarizing the key issues and concerns raised at the meeting, and how each shall be addressed as part of the contract.

Task 2—Technical Working Group (TWG)

0. Establish TWG. The contractor(s) shall propose to the COR a set of primary and alternate members for the TWG panel within 2 weeks of task order award. The TWG shall be comprised of eight individuals that, together, have expertise in special education services and their costs, evaluation methodology, and the collection and analysis of fiscal data from education agencies. The contractor shall evaluate the potential for conflicts of interest by assessing whether any individual considered for inclusion on the TWG has a bias or financial interest in the outcome of the study or study tasks. These conflicts of interest can be perceived or actual and are described in a form that IES provides to the contractor. The contractor shall have TWG members complete conflict of interest forms before appointment to the TWG as consultants. The contractor shall contact each approved member and submit letters of commitment and documentation of consulting rates to the COR four weeks after COR approval of the TWG list.

0. Convene full TWG Meeting. A full-day TWG meeting shall be held virtually via video conference within 4 months of task award. The TWG meeting shall involve a discussion of the proposed study design options in order to obtain feedback on its feasibility, rigor, and credibility in meeting the full study objectives. The contractor shall cover the honorarium for TWG members. Four weeks prior to the meeting, the contractor shall provide to the COR a draft agenda, a draft slide deck, and a plan for a guided discussion of key topics and issues. Within one week after the meeting, the contractor shall submit a brief but detailed summary of the key observations and recommendations provided by TWG members, along with the contractor’s proposed actions. The contractor shall not make any significant changes in the task order activities based solely upon the recommendation of TWG members without the written approval of the COR and CO.

Task 3— Feasibility and Design

The contractor shall undertake activities to assist IES in determining study design options for conducting a feasible and credible study of special education spending and costs. Under subtasks 3.3 and 3.4, the contractor shall develop a plan to address the evaluation’s research questions. The plan shall build on the contractor’s proposal and be refined in consultation with the COR. Within 4 months of task order award, the contractor shall submit a draft version of the plan. The COR will review and provide comments on the draft plan within 2 weeks. Within 4 weeks after receiving COR comments, the contractor shall make revisions and submit a final version of the plan. Under subtask 3.7, within 6 weeks of being assigned the task by the COR, the contractor shall develop a draft critique of the most recent, relevant study in this area to inform the design options. Within 3 weeks after receiving COR comments, the contractor shall make revisions and submit a final version of the plan.

3.3 Sample Design and Size. The contractor shall develop possible strategies for sampling districts, schools, principals, and/or teachers to best address the key research questions. This sampling shall be geared toward providing a nationally representative picture of spending and enable statistical comparisons of differences for key subgroups. This plan shall include ways to categorize districts and schools into sampling strata, if appropriate. The plan shall also justify the sufficiency of the sample size to inform cost and spending on subgroups of interest.

3.4 Full Study Data Collection Options. The contractor shall develop data collection options for a new study, carefully weighing the design considerations IES has noted. The plan shall describe the information topics, domains, and constructs that are necessary to achieve the objectives of the study and, at a high level, how that information might be obtained. The plan shall also describe how that information might be analyzed to address each research question.

3.7 Study Critique: Lessons from prior spending and cost study. The SEEP is the most recent, thorough, and comprehensive look at special education spending, and therefore is an important starting point for designing a new study. Therefore, the contractor shall conduct an independent or outside review[footnoteRef:3] of the SEEP, highlighting its strengths and areas where the methodology and study design could be improved. The contractor shall incorporate lessons and insights from this prior project into design options for a new, updated study. [3: ]

Task 9—Data Collection to Inform Study Design Options

9.14 Conduct interviews or focus groups. The contractor shall collect information through interviews or focus groups to inform the reliability and validity of potential data collection strategies for the study. The contractor shall assess working with state, district, or school administrators and, possibly, teachers. Within two weeks following the interviews/focus groups, the contractor shall prepare a memo summarizing the lessons from the interviews/groups, along with the contractor’s proposed recommendations for how to incorporate those lessons into a study design.

Task 5—Data Collection to Inform Study Design Options (Optional Task)

5. 2 Prepare OMB Forms Clearance Packages for an Expedited Review. If the contractor believes that 9 or fewer respondents is adequate to inform the development of design options, no Information Clearance Request package must be submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). If, however, the contractor can make a persuasive case that more than 9 interviews or focus groups are needed -- for example to conduct A/B testing or other experiments to determine the reliability and validity of methods -- the contractor shall submit such a package to the COR within 2 months. The package shall be developed to obtain OMB approval using IES’ Generic (expedited) Clearance vehicle, which requires less documentation and results in approval within roughly 15 days in comparison to a typical ICR submitted through the regular OMB clearance process.

Task 12—Monthly Communication with ED and Reporting

12.1 Ongoing Communication. The contractor shall provide updates on task order activity and identify issues or problems primarily through email. The contractor shall participate in monthly conference calls with the COR as needed during periods of task order activity. These calls will be used to update the COR on the progress of task order activities and to discuss any issues or anticipated problems and proposed solutions to those problems. Although the contractor may be required to perform this subtask for different task orders, ED expects that the emails and monthly calls will pertain to all current task orders in the aggregate and not that there will be separate monthly calls for each task order.

12.2 Monthly Reporting. The contractor shall submit one copy of the following reports each month to the COR and CO:

· Monthly Progress Report/Exception Reports. The contractor shall submit monthly progress reports. The reports shall summarize the major activities and accomplishments for the reporting period. In addition, they shall provide information for each project task regarding significant findings and events, problems encountered, and staff use. The reports shall also specify the extent to which the project is on schedule, briefly describe the activities planned for the next month, identify and discuss significant deviations from the substantive and time factors in the management plan, and identify and discuss any decisions which may be needed from ED. If there are no exceptions, the reports shall state that there are no exceptions. If there are exceptions to the management plan, the contractor shall describe the plan for resolving the problems.

· Monthly Manpower/Expenditure Reports. The contractor shall submit monthly expenditure reports. These reports, prepared and signed by the project director, shall summarize the actual personnel assignments for the month just completed, showing for each staff member the hours charged by task. The report shall project similar assignment information for the upcoming month. The reports shall also exhibit expenditures, segregating project costs for each task order and for each task within a task order, and specifying for all travel the locations, duration, and personnel for each trip.

· Security Clearance List Maintenance. The contractor shall maintain lists of each staff member assigned to work on the contract, the required security clearance level of their position (see table below), and their progress toward attaining clearance.

Schedule of Deliverables

All deliverables shall be submitted electronically to the COR. The contractor shall also electronically submit one copy of the monthly report and final deliverables to the CO.

Task Order Contract

Task 1 – Meetings

Task 2 – Technical Working Group (TWG)

Task 3 – Feasibility and Design

Task 9 – Data Collection

Task 5—Data Collection to Inform Study Design Options (Optional Task)

Task 12 – Monthly Communication with ED and Reporting