Central Repository

The State Board of Private Licensed Schools and the State Board of Higher Education in Pennsylvania are requesting applications for a vendor to establish and operate a secure central repository for student transcripts from private licensed schools and potentially higher-education institutions, with responses due October 12, 2026 at 3:00 PM Eastern.

The repository must ingest, store, and service approximately 940,000 existing transcripts from closed schools and historical records, plus an anticipated 300,000 additional transcripts from open schools by December 31, 2027, and process an estimated 65,000 annual transcripts from the 186 currently operating private licensed schools. The vendor must establish upload protocols, provide technical support to schools and Department staff, implement identity verification and secure payment processing for transcript requests, manage disaster-recovery and transition plans, maintain FERPA-compliant data security, and provide biannual financial and service reporting. The system must accommodate both paper records and PDF documents. All data must be stored in the United States, and the vendor must provide ADA-compliant website functionality.

The contract operates on a cost-recovery model: the Commonwealth, Department, and Boards pay nothing; the vendor recovers all expenses through fees charged to students, schools, and third parties. Pricing is fixed for the first two years; thereafter, fee changes require 60 days' notice and may not exceed average fees charged by comparable transcript service providers as determined by the Department. The contract term is five years.

Offerors must demonstrate minimum two years of experience as a transcript storage and service provider with documented protection of over one million transcripts, provide audited financial statements for 2023, 2024, and 2025, submit key-personnel resumes, include third-party security protocol reviews, and submit a comprehensive five-year budget plan detailing revenue sources and itemized costs. Questions are due September 24, 2026 at 3:00 PM Eastern; submit to fjumper@pa.gov.