TWG Support PWS.docx

Attachment A – Performance Work Statement (PWS) U.S. Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences

Performance Work Statement (PWS) Support for NCER & NCSER Technical Working Group (TWG) Meetings

Table of Contents

Introduction The Institute of Education Sciences (IES) is the statistics, research, and evaluation arm of the U.S. Department of Education (ED). The goal of IES is to provide national leadership in expanding fundamental knowledge and understanding of education from early childhood through postsecondary study, in order to provide parents, educators, students, researchers, policymakers, and the general public with reliable information about the condition and progress of education in the United States, from early childhood through postsecondary education; educational practices that support learning and improve academic achievement and access to educational opportunities for all students; and the effectiveness of federal and other education programs.

The Education Sciences Reform Act (ESRA, Title I of P.L. 107-279) established IES as an independent research arm of ED. Title I, Part A, of ESRA establishes IES as a research institute within ED, intended to provide “national leadership in expanding fundamental knowledge and understanding of education from early childhood through postsecondary study.” IES is authorized to carry out these objectives by compiling statistics, conducting research and evaluations, and disseminating information.

IES executes its mission through four national education centers and an Office of the Director:

· The National Center for Education Research (NCER) sponsors research leading to the accumulation of knowledge and understanding of education.

· The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) collects and analyzes education information and statistics in a manner that meets the highest methodological standards.

· The National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance (NCEE) supports evaluation, technical assistance, development, and dissemination activities.

· The National Center for Special Education Research (NCSER) sponsors research to expand knowledge and understanding of the needs of infants, toddlers, and children with disabilities.

· The Office of the Director carries out specific duties, such as proposing research priorities and establishing procedures for technical and peer review. The Standards and Review Office (SRO) carries out rigorous peer review of all research, statistics, and evaluation reports conducted by, or supported through, the Institute and falls under the Office of the Director.

Legislative Authority IES is the research arm of the Department of Education (ED). Established by the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 (ESRA, PL 107-279), IES’s mission is “to provide national leadership in expanding fundamental knowledge and understanding of education from early childhood through postsecondary study.” IES provides educators, administrators, researchers, policymakers, parents, students, and the general public reliable information about educational practices that support learning and improve academic achievement and access to educational opportunities for all students; the condition and progress of education in the United States; and the effectiveness of federal and other education programs. IES’s activities are accomplished through four research centers: the National Center for Education Research (NCER), the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance (NCEE), and the National Center for Special Education Research (NCSER).

Part B of the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 established NCER. NCER has supported research activities to improve the quality of education and, thereby, increase student academic achievement, reduce the achievement gap between high-performing and low-performing students, and increase access to and completion of postsecondary education. NCER has also funded predoctoral and postdoctoral research training programs to invest in the training and development of the next generation of education researchers. NCER research programs address education programs, practices, and policies in reading and writing, mathematics and science education, teacher quality, education leadership, education policy and finance, cognition and student learning, high school reform, and postsecondary education. Within these programs of research, investigators are identifying existing education programs, practices, and policies that may impact student outcomes; developing new education interventions (e.g., curricula, teacher professional development programs); evaluating the efficacy of fully developed programs or practices; evaluating the effectiveness of specific interventions taken to scale; and developing and validating assessments. Through these activities, NCER is advancing understanding of teaching, learning, and education systems in order to improve the quality of education for all students. Funding to support research programs is dependent on annual funding approved by Congress. For more information about NCER activities, please refer to the NCER website at http://ies.ed.gov/ncer/.

On December 3, 2004, Congress reauthorized the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). This reauthorization amended the Education Sciences Reform Act (ESRA) of 2002 to establish NCSER within IES. NCSER sponsors rigorous research designed to improve educational and developmental outcomes for children with or at risk for disabilities. NCSER’s research efforts focus on improving (a) developmental outcomes for infants and toddlers with disabilities; (b) readiness for schooling; (c) academic outcomes in reading, writing, mathematics, and science; (d) student behavior and social interactions; (e) functional skills; and (f) educational attainment and transition to postsecondary settings. NCSER’s current standing programs of research are designed to address 11 topic areas: Early Intervention and Early Learning in Special Education; Reading, Writing, and Language Development; Mathematics and Science Education; Social and Behavioral Outcomes to Support Learning; Transition Outcomes for Special Education Secondary Students; Cognition and Student Learning in Special Education; Professional Development for Teachers and Related Services Providers; Special Education Policy, Finance, and Systems; Autism Spectrum Disorders; Technology for Special Education; and Families of Children with Disabilities. In addition, NCSER currently supports Special Education Research and Development Centers and Postdoctoral Research Training Programs. For more information about NCSER activities, please refer to the NCSER website at http://ncser.ed.gov.

Purpose of Scope of Work The purpose of this contract is to provide the National Center for Special Education Research (NCSER) and the National Center for Education Research (NCER) in the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) with administrative and logistical support related to the research, evaluation, and research leadership activities in education and in special education. This Performance Work Statement (PWS) describes the expected work related to support for meetings and technical working groups that help NCSER and NCER learn from expert researchers and practitioners in the field to plan future research and grant activities and for experts to provide technical assistance (e.g., on new methods). These meetings are typically one day in length and can vary in format (virtual or in-person). The meeting support will often also include note-taking and production of a meeting summary.

Requirement Context The purpose of this contract is to obtain administrative and logistical support for the research, evaluation, and leadership activities of NCSER and NCER. NCER/NCSER have procured contract support for meetings for the past 15 years under three prior contracts, so this work is routine for our centers. Under this requirement, the Contractor shall provide support for Meetings and Technical Working Groups.

The base year of the contract is for a total of two virtual meetings and two in-person meetings, one (1) virtual and one (1) in-person per center. For the remaining option years 1 – 4, all meetings are optional with up to four (4) virtual and up to four (4) in-person meetings, two (2) of each type per center as reflected below:

· Base Year

· Two Virtual Meetings (1 per center, NCER and NCSER)

· Two In-person Meetings (1 per center, NCER and NCSER)

· Option Year 1

· Up to Four Virtual Meetings (2 per center, NCER and NCSER)

· Up to Four In-person Meetings (2 per center, NCER and NCSER)

· Option Year 2

· Up to Four Virtual Meetings (2 per center, NCER and NCSER)

· Up to Four In-person Meetings (2 per center, NCER and NCSER)

· Option Year 3

· Up to Four Virtual Meetings (2 per center, NCER and NCSER)

· Up to Four In-person Meetings (2 per center, NCER and NCSER)

· Option Year 4

· Up to Four Virtual Meetings (2 per center, NCER and NCSER)

· Up to Four In-person Meetings (2 per center, NCER and NCSER)

The meetings will be scheduled based on the availability of invited experts and IES staff. The Contractor shall provide administrative and logistics support for these full day meetings (typically scheduled from 9am-5pm). Expert panelists are invited to speak to IES staff about an area of interest to the research field, to inform future work of IES.

The Contractor shall process an honorarium for each expert panelist for their preparation time and time speaking to IES staff including work completed in preparation for the meeting. The Contractor shall provide administrative and logistics support for the meeting by providing a virtual meeting and collaboration software platform (i.e., Teams or WebEx) which is accessible to Department of Education staff laptops, allows for presentation of slides, chat by participants (to the whole group and specific individuals), allows for control of participation (such as muting all participants by the presenter, hand raise or other feature to note when someone wants to speak), and includes the option of having breakout rooms for small group collaboration. This platform will be used to connect remote participants (IES staff, TWG experts, and invited guests) who join either by computer, mobile device or phone and include a conference call line (and passcode) for the main meeting and any breakout rooms. The Contractor shall provide a brief summary/notes from the meeting.

General Information Period of Performance This contract shall have an ordering period of five years from the date of contract. Options may be exercised at any point within this ordering period.

Table 1 - Period of Performance

Place of Performance The place of performance will be at the contractor’s location for virtual meetings and at the Department of Education location for in-person meetings. In-person meetings are held at one of these two Department of Education locations:

· Potomac Center Plaza building at 550 12th Street Southwest, Washington, DC 20024.

· Lyndon B. Johnson building at 400 Maryland Avenue Southwest, Washington, DC 20202.

Scope of Work

The Contractor will provide logistics and meeting support for virtual and in-person meetings and technical working group meetings. For in-person meetings the Contractor support will be similar except the meeting support will be in-person and the Contractor will assist the Expert panelists with travel arrangements/logistics.

The types of support activities required to address NCSER’s and NCER’s administrative, logistic and support needs will be issued under the activities that are described in more detail below (Meetings and Technical Working Groups).

Virtual and In-Person Meetings and Technical Working Groups The Contractor shall provide support to NCSER and NCER (the Centers) in the successful planning and conducting of meetings and technical working groups to learn from expert researchers and practitioners in the field and plan future research and grant activities. The Contractor shall also coordinate the work with selected experts to provide technical assistance. (e.g., on new methods).

For the purposes of this contract, meetings shall include conferences, seminars, technical assistance meetings, technical working group meetings, or other related information sessions such as panel and board meetings and activities related to the public release of NCSER/NCER reports. Some meetings may be sponsored or co-sponsored by NCSER and/or NCER with education practitioners and/or national experts in research, evaluation, social science/education methodology, statistics, education and special education, early intervention, and education policy. These meetings will be conducted for the purpose of obtaining assistance on research initiatives, research design, and methodological issues relevant to NCSER and NCER research and evaluation programs as well as for examining the research base on education and special education practices, recommendations for changes and future activities, and/or the general provision of feedback and technical assistance.

During each contract year, the Contractor shall provide administrative and logistical support for special group meetings and technical working groups. These meetings will either be held virtually through a contractor provided platform that is accessible through government furnished laptops that IES staff attending meetings will use (i.e., TEAMS or WebEx). Meeting rooms for in-person meetings will be held at one of the NCSER/NCER offices provided above and will be reserved by the Government. Meeting size will include up to 16 experts, up to 34 invited guests (primarily Department of Education Staff), for a total of 50 guests and length of meeting time will be up to 8 hours. The Centers are planning for a maximum of four virtual meetings and four in-person meetings per year, with the exception of the base year which will consist of only two virtual and two in-person meetings.

Special group meetings, such as expert panels, boards, task forces – NCER and NCSER plan to hold meetings attended by invited guests that last up to 8 hours on one day. The Contractor shall be responsible for the attendees’ honoraria, travel, hotel, and per diem for in-person meetings. The Contractor shall also organize ground transportation prior to and after the meetings from and to hotels and the airport or other location as needed by participants.

Technical working group meetings with experts who can inform education and/or special education research NCER and NCSER plan to hold meetings attended by invited guests that last one day. The Contractor shall be responsible for the expert’s honoraria, travel, hotel, and per diem. For in-person meetings the Contractor shall organize ground transportation prior to and after the meetings from and to hotels and the airport or other location as needed by participants.

For each Option Year, the exact number of virtual and in-person meetings will be provided at the time the Option to exercise requested. For planning purposes, the contractor will be notified at least sixty (60) calendar days in advance before a meeting is scheduled. Additionally, Task 1 provides standard meeting support for both virtual and in-person meetings however Task 2, provides additional support for in-person meetings only. Therefore, Task 1 is required to support virtual meetings while both Tasks 1 and 2 are required to support in-person meetings.

Note: Please provide unit pricing for all tasks/subtasks in one-day, meeting support increments. The contractor shall assume all meetings up to the numbers provided above will be exercised in proposing the total cost per task/subtask.

Task 1: Meeting Support | Non-Optional Subtask 1A.1 Post Award Kick-off Meeting and Notes Within five (5) business days of the award for the first meeting and sixty (60) calendar days prior to each subsequent Technical Working Group meeting, the Contractor shall meet by phone with the Contracting Officer (CO), Contract Specialist (CS), COR, and task leads to review the overall tasks and activities. The Contractor shall provide a brief meeting summary and notes from the kick-off meeting five (5) business days after the meeting.

Deliverables:

1A.1a Attend kickoff meeting in-person or via teleconference 1A.1b Kick-off Meeting Notes Subtask 1A.2 Regular Communication The Contractor shall participate in regular (bi-weekly) telephone calls with the COR to discuss the progress of the work under this contract including any anticipated problems and proposed solutions to those problems. Within five (5) business days after each call, the Contractor shall submit to the COR a brief summary of the key issues and concerns discussed along with the Contractor’s understanding of the activities to be undertaken before the subsequent call and brief overview of the progress status for key activities and deliverables. In addition, the Contractor shall be available for brief calls to address unexpected issues that arise during the performance period. These meetings may occur on an as-needed basis at the request of the COR or the Contractor and shall take place via conference call. There shall be no more than two meetings a month to discuss unexpected issues. It is estimated that this need for communication will occur for a period of approximately 2 months prior to the TWG meeting and for 1 month after the meeting estimated at 6 bi-weekly calls (15 minutes in length) and up to 6 calls to address unexpected issues (approximately 15 minutes in length) for a total of 12 calls per meeting.

Deliverable:

1A.2a (1-12) Summaries of bi-weekly communication from telephone calls with COR Subtask 1A.3 Pre- Meeting Planning and Preparation Meetings include up to sixteen (16) invited experts who present and discuss information related to the topic of the meeting and up to thirty-four (34) attendees (primarily staff from IES and the Department) for a total of up to fifty (50) participants. The Contractor shall send draft expert agreements, conflict of interest and nondisclosure/confidentiality form, and draft formal e-mail with meeting logistics information to the COR for review within ten (10) business days after the kickoff meeting. The COR will provide templates for these documents at the Contract Kickoff Meeting. This shall include directions to any virtual participants for using the meeting platform (i.e., Microsoft TEAMS or Webex) and provide an opportunity to practice using the platform to testing their sound/video prior to the meeting.

The Contractor shall prepare and send letters of introduction to up to sixteen (16) meeting experts according to lists provided to the Contractor by the COR within five (5) business days after receiving the e-mail list from the COR. Within five (5) business days of receiving the list of experts, the Contractor shall send the agreements and guidelines to meeting experts regarding conflicts of interest and nondisclosure/confidentiality, as well as assist the Centers with the collection of such agreements. The Contractor shall include information about the meeting platform (for anyone attending virtually), any information about connecting with different devices (laptop, mobile) and the process for participants to work with the Contractor to practice connecting with the meeting software and testing their sound/video. The Contractor shall also include information on the recording of the meeting for the purpose of notetaking and to inform the writing of the meeting summary. The Contractor shall inform participants of the policy for the honorarium. The Contractor shall inform participants of the honorarium they will be paid as “experts” if they are not receiving reimbursement under an IES grant or contract. Details shall also include that the honoraria payment will be made by check and can only be paid to the name of the expert, not to their own personal business (e.g., LLC), company/institution they work for, or any other individual (e.g., such as a donation to an organization). The experts may also decline their honoraria.

Deliverables:

1A.3a Draft Expert Agreements, conflicts of interest and nondisclosure/confidentiality form, and draft e-mail introduction with virtual meeting logistics information 1A.3b Send invited experts the letter of introduction with logistics information, honoraria information, agreement, and conflicts of interest and nondisclosure/confidentiality form and collect signed forms Subtask 1A.4 Virtual Meeting Platform and Meeting Documents The contractor shall provide a virtual meeting platform that is accessible to federal employees using government furnished laptops (i.e., TEAMS or WebEx) for use during the meeting by any participants joining remotely and up to three weeks prior to the meeting to test out with meeting participants and the COR. The meeting platform shall be accessible by meeting participants using a computer or mobile device without having to install any software (for example, being able to access using a browser). The platform shall include the option of a chat box, Q & A area, and participant list with meeting facilitator control over who is able to speak and features such as “raise hand” so that meeting participants can notify the facilitator that they have a question. The meeting platform shall allow the option for a single meeting virtual room and up to eight breakout meeting rooms to be used at any point during the day, each with their own separate conference call information for participants unable to join by computer or who have internet connectivity issues. The meeting platform shall allow for a monthly license rate so that the project is only paying for the cost of the platform for the week of the meeting and three weeks prior to the meeting for no more a rate of 2 months of service per meeting (or for a yearly license to be used across all virtual TWG meetings during the year, whichever cost is less). The platform license shall allow up to 200 virtual participants and the ability for the meeting to be recorded, notifying the participants that the meeting is being recorded. The Contractor shall provide the COR with the name of the platform and a list of features that are part of the license at the kick-off meeting.

The Contractor shall gather short bios and photos from experts to provide to the COR at least ten (10) business days prior to the meeting. The COR will provide the Contractor with details for the type of information needed in the bios. Five (5) business days prior to the meeting, the Contractor shall e-mail participants and provide virtual meeting logistics information (including directions for joining the meeting, virtual meeting etiquette, how to access meeting materials available within the meeting platform, and directions for joining by phone if they lose internet connectivity or are unable to connect by computer or mobile device, and reminders about any agreements not yet received). Within three (3) business days before the meeting, the Contractor shall gather PowerPoint presentations and any other materials provided to the Contractor by the COR and/or meeting experts and prepare to have them available in the virtual meeting software to be shared during the meeting on the screen and downloaded by participants.

Deliverables:

1A.4a Virtual Meeting Platform name and list of features 1A.4b Collect and submit expert bios and photos 1A.4c Meeting logistics for participants 1A.4d Collection of PowerPoint and meeting documents Subtask 1A.5 Pre-, During, and Post-meeting Support The Contractor shall provide a sufficient number of staff (a minimum of 1) for meeting support and set-up during the meeting and start the meeting platform (1) hour prior to the meeting start time. The on-site support includes testing sound and video for each meeting participant who joins virtually as they join (noting attendance and sharing with meeting lead anyone not yet in the meeting prior to the meeting start time). The Contractor will support any virtual participants during the meeting through chat, or by phone, if they have any technical difficulty with the meeting platform or other needs related to meeting participation. Center staff will supplement contractor staff at all events providing at least one IES staff member’s cell phone number in addition to the contractor phone number to support participants needs during the meeting.

Deliverable:

1A.5a Meeting Platform Set-Up and Participant Support Subtask 1B Honorarium The Contractor shall provide support to the Centers by paying the participants an honoraria for the time to prepare and present at the technical working group. The Contractor shall inform participants of the honorarium they will be paid as “experts” if they are not receiving reimbursement under an IES grant or contract. The Contractor shall pay the experts an honorarium of no more than $703.44 per eight (8) hour day for up to 2 days for the time to prepare and present at the meeting and any follow-up activities (e.g., feedback on TWG summary). To incorporate the lived experience of students in the technical working group meetings, IES may choose to include student TWG members in lieu of up to 2 experts. These students shall be paid at the hourly rate of $26.71 (undergraduates) and $33.08 (masters students) and $40.46 (doctoral students) for up to eight (8) hours a day for up to two (2) days. Because these hourly rates are less than the expert rate, no additional funds need to be budgeted. If a student is included in the TWG based on their employment and professional expertise, rather than their student experience, they shall be paid at the expert hourly rate. Honorarium shall not exceed two (2) days per invited expert.

Subtask 1B.1 Invoice for Honoraria and W-9/1099-Misc Tax Forms The Contractor shall pay the expert participants the honoraria within fourteen (14) business days after the meeting. The Contractor shall provide an invoice for allowable honoraria paid by the Contractor within five (5) days after the honoraria have been processed. The invoice detail (attached notes) shall itemize the costs for the honoraria paid to participants noting any partial honoraria paid and any participants who declined the honoraria. In response to any communication with experts it is important to notify them that the honoraria check shall only be made to their name and not to the name of any other person or organization. For example, their honoraria shall not be donated directly to an organization from the Contractor. If an expert is participating in the TWG Meeting on a paid workday, the honoraria cannot be paid to their employer. The honoraria check must be made out to the TWG expert then the expert could sign the check over to their employer or write them a personal check as appropriate. The Contractor shall arrange for each participant to complete a W-9 and a 1099-MISC form that they will receive at the end of the tax year for the honoraria.

Deliverables:

1B.1a Issue honorariums and W-9/1099-Misc Tax Forms 1B.1b Invoice for issued honorariums Subtask 1C Meeting Summary The Contractor shall provide support to the research center (NCER/NCSER) in the successful development of a summary of the technical working group meeting based on notes taken during the meeting by a Contractor personnel member and the professional expertise of a Subject Matter Expert (SME). The SME must have ten (10) or more years’ experience with a doctoral degree (PhD or EdD) in an area of the discipline/field related to the Technical Working Group topic. They must be an author of more than one (1) publication in a peer review journal relevant to the discipline/field of the Technical Working Group topic published in the last 5 years. IES can provide a list of possible experts that the Contractor can use in addition to any known experts the Contractor is aware of to assist in locating someone for this task. For the Base Year, the following Topics are under consideration by each center for the technical working group meetings:

NCSER

· Including the voices of people with disabilities in NCSER-funded research

· Supporting commercialization and scaling of NCSER-funded research

NCER

· Supporting commercialization and scaling of NCER-funded research

· To Be Determined Subtask 1C.1 Meeting Notes and Transcript The Contractor shall provide a court reporter or note-taker to take notes during the meeting and shall provide IES the notes and transcript of the meeting within ten (10) business days following the meeting. To support notetaking and transcription the Contractor may use the virtual meeting platform or any audio recording device to record the meeting with approval by meeting experts and notification that the meeting is being recorded when participants log onto the meeting. Any recording made of the meeting for the purpose of supporting note taking and transcription shall be made only with consent of participants and shall be destroyed after the meeting notes, transcript, and summary are approved by the COR. Notes (either handwritten or electronic) shall be taken by the court-reporter or note-taker in addition to the recording in case anything would happen to damage any part of the recording. The transcript is for use by the SME in writing the summary and for internal use at IES only and will not be shared publicly. The recording shall be destroyed once the meeting summary is accepted by the COR and shall not be shared with anyone outside of IES.

Deliverables:

1C.1a Meeting notes and Transcript Subtask 1C.2 Meeting Summary The Contractor shall provide a SME to attend the technical working group meeting and create a comprehensive meeting summary. The SME shall have content expertise in the topic of the technical working group meeting and must be approved by IES prior to the meeting. The SME shall create a professional meeting summary report based on attendance at the meeting, review of the notes and transcript produced by the contractor staff, guidance from a meeting with the research center staff, and examples from prior meeting summaries.

In order to support the development of the meeting summary, within five (5) business days after the meeting, the Contractor shall arrange a call between the note-taker, the SME, the COR and the IES meeting lead to go over any expectations for the meeting summary in terms of formatting and content organization.

No later than three (3) weeks following the meeting, the contractor’s SME shall synthesize the meeting from the meeting notes and transcript into a comprehensive meeting summary. The summary must not exceed 20 pages and must adhere to IES Style Guide and IES Graphic standards[footnoteRef:2] as well as federal plain language guidelines for clarity[footnoteRef:3]. This synthesis must be a thoughtful distillation of the key concepts discussed and outcomes from the meeting. The summary will also include a list of key references mentioned during the meeting. The COR and IES leadership and staff anticipate no more than three rounds of review by IES with requests for revisions of the draft summary. At the point where there are no further edits requested by IES, the Contractor will submit the final summary report within five (5) business days after receiving COR acceptance of the draft summary deliverable. [2: Graphics Standards for IES Publications and Collateral Materials (https://nces.ed.gov/statprog/styleguide/pdf/graphicsguide.pdf) and the IES Style Guide (https://nces.ed.gov/statprog/styleguide/pdf/styleguide.pdf)] [3: Federal plain language guidelines (https://www.plainlanguage.gov/guidelines/)]

The COR and IES Meeting Lead will send the meeting summary report out for review and feedback by the technical working group experts. The final summary will be posted to the web. IES creates the cover for this summary. Example summaries from past technical working groups are available here: https://ies.ed.gov/ncer/whatsnew/techworkinggroup/ Deliverables:

1C.2a Call with COR and IES lead about Meeting Summary expectations 1C.2b Final Meeting summary

Table 2 – Task 1 Schedule of Deliverables

Note: All deliverables are subject to the performance indicator measures provided in Table 5 Key Performance Measures.

Task 2: In-person Meeting Support| Optional For in-person meetings, the Contractor will complete all Task 1 Meeting Support subtasks in addition to the Task 2 In-person Meeting Support subtasks below.

Subtask 2A.1 Meeting Expert Travel Arrangements The Contractor shall make arrangements and payment for travel, lodging, and per diem for up to sixteen (16) experts attending the in-person meeting. The Contractor shall reserve rooms at the government rate. The Contractor shall also inform experts in advance of their reimbursement practice (e.g., actual expenses vs. per diem). The costs associated with reimbursements are included in a separate cost reimbursable task. The Contractor shall inform experts ahead of time that the maximum airfare acceptable will be the 14-day advance purchase fare for coach travel. Any fare in excess of this amount or any additional charges incurred due to changes in reservations will be the responsibility of the experts unless approved in advance by the COR. The Contractor shall finalize all travel arrangements (hotel and transportation) at least four (4) weeks prior to the meeting date.

The Contractor shall contact at least three (3) hotels to determine rates and availability at least six (6) weeks prior to the meeting date. The Contractor shall submit a report, and recommendations as to which hotels best meet the Center’s needs and requirements to the COR. Facilities must be located within a 10-block radius of the site or metro stops; or be a location specified by the Centers. The Contractor shall send e-mail letters of confirmation to the meeting participants concerning their travel and hotel arrangements. In this email, the Contractor shall inform participants of the policy for reimbursing participants for all approved costs incurred by participants within fourteen (14) business days after receipt of expenses. In this email, the Contractor shall inform participants of the honorarium they will be paid as “experts” if they are not receiving reimbursement under an IES grant or contract. The information shall also include information for the experts about arranging taxis to airport after the meeting, a map with nearest Metro stop and restaurants or coffee shops, and reminders about building security and location of snack bar on 7th floor since coffee/snacks will not be provided. The Contractor shall submit the draft e-mail with travel logistics information to the COR at least five (5) weeks prior to the meeting. The Contractor shall send invited experts the final travel logistics email at least four (4) weeks prior to the meeting date.

Deliverables:

2A.1a Hotel Cost Proposal 2A.1b Draft e-mail with travel logistics information 2A.1c Send invited experts the email with travel logistics information 2A.1d Travel and lodging arrangements (hotel and transportation arrangements) Subtask 2A.2 Printing of Meeting Materials Within three (3) business days before the meeting, the Contractor shall print/copy meeting materials provided by the COR. The Contractor shall assemble and prepare up to 50 sets of meeting materials, such as agendas and programs, folders, handouts, name tags and name tents, directional signs for meetings, directories, and logistics information for meeting participants (e.g., map with nearest Metro stop and restaurants or coffee shops) and bring them the day of the meeting.

Deliverables:

2A.2a Prepare/copy meeting materials 2A.2b Assemble meeting materials in folder. Create nametags, name tents, and directional signs for meeting Subtask 2A.3 On-site Meeting Support The Contractor shall provide a sufficient number of staff (a minimum of 1) for on-site support and set-up during the meeting and arrive one (1) hour prior to the start of the meeting. The on-site support includes providing name tags and name tents, writing materials, etc. the Contractor shall support participants attending in-person during the meeting with locating nearest restroom or other needs related to meeting participation. In addition, the Contractor will work with participants to assist with lunch plans and to arrange local travel (e.g., taxis), during the meeting, as needed. Center staff will assist contractor staff at all events providing participants with at least one cell phone number in addition to the contractor phone number for support during the meeting.

Deliverables:

2A.3a Room set-up and in-person participant support 2A.3b Arrange for lunch plans and for local travel as necessary for participants Subtask 2B Travel (Direct Reimbursement) The Contractor shall provide support to the Centers by reimbursing experts for approved travel related costs.

Subtask 2B.1 Invoice for Approved Travel (Direct Reimbursement) The Contractor shall provide an invoice for allowable travel costs for the meeting participants, incurred by the Contractor within five (5) business days after all reimbursements have been processed. The invoice shall itemize the costs incurred for any pre-arranged travel (e.g., flights and lodging), the costs paid to participants to reimburse them for allowable meeting travel costs (e.g., per diem, ground transportation).

Deliverables:

2B.1a Invoice IES for Approved Travel Costs

Table 3 – Task 2 Schedule of Deliverables

Note: All deliverables are subject to the performance indicator measures provided in Table 5 Key Performance Measures.

Key Personnel/Staff Qualifications Table 4 - Labor Categories (LCAT)

Quality Control and Assurance Table 5 – Key Performance Measures for Task 1 and Task 2

Security Security and Information Technology Requirements Contractors shall comply with Department of Education cyber, privacy, and personnel (i.e., contractor vetting) security policy requirements. All established policies and requirements are referenced on ED’s Security Requirements for Contractors Doing Business with the Department of Education web page.

The policy applies as a whole, although contractors may be exempt from specific requirements dependent upon the nature of the procurement. Applicable requirements are identified in the following table:

Table 6 – IT Security and Privacy Requirements