Comprehensive Child Welfare Information System

Minnesota's Departments of Information Technology Services (MNIT) and Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) are soliciting an RFP for Design, Development, and Implementation of a Comprehensive Child Welfare Information System (CCWIS) to replace the child welfare components of the Social Services Information System (SSIS), with proposals due September 24, 2026 at 2:00 PM Central Time and questions due by August 14, 2026.

Set-asides apply for small businesses certified under Minnesota's Small Business Procurement Program, including minority-owned, women-owned, veteran-owned, service-disabled veteran-owned, or owned by persons with substantial physical disabilities, as well as businesses located in or owned by residents of economically disadvantaged counties. Prevailing wage rates established in Exhibit A apply to all work performed under the contract.

The scope spans design, configuration, integration, testing, implementation, and transition to operations of an end-to-end child welfare platform supporting intake, investigation and assessment, case management, placement, permanency, prevention services, provider licensing, Indian Child Welfare Act compliance, Title IV-E eligibility, and reporting and analytics across 87 Minnesota counties and three American Indian Child Welfare Initiative Tribes, serving approximately 6,500 end users. The system must support Minnesota's state-supervised, locally-administered model while enabling local jurisdictions to configure workflows without customization, respect Tribal sovereignty, and interface with state and local systems including MAXIS, MMIS, SWIFT, county financial systems, and federal reporting (AFCARS, NCANDS, NYTD, IV-E). All functional and non-functional requirements are documented in detailed Requirements Traceability Matrices; responders must complete these matrices indicating whether requirements are met out-of-the-box, through configuration, customization, third-party products, or are not available. Mandatory capabilities include role-based access controls, multi-factor authentication, FIPS 140-3 and TLS 1.3 encryption, NIST 800-53 Revision 5 Moderate baseline security controls, HIPAA and 42 CFR Part 2 compliance, ADA and WCAG 2.1 Level AA accessibility, disaster recovery with eight-hour RTO and one-hour RPO, 99.9 percent monthly availability, 24/7/365 support for Severity 1 incidents with 15-minute response time, and 18-month warranty.

Mandatory qualifications include successful implementation of a child welfare system modernization project in another state, at least five years of implementation expertise in child welfare system modernization, and provision of references for prior successful implementation. All storage and processing must occur within the United States with no foreign outsourcing permitted. The selected vendor must maintain onsite presence in St. Paul, Minnesota at least monthly during the first six months; implement a PMI-certified Project Manager and defined key personnel including Functional, Technical, Data Conversion, Data Exchange/Interface, Testing, Training, and Support & Operations Leads; and collaborate with other State-contracted vendors including Independent Verification and Validation, Organizational Change Management, and Project Management Office services.

The initial contract term is anticipated as two years with an option to extend up to three additional years. The State reserves the right to conduct interviews and demonstrations in St. Paul as part of evaluation, with award anticipated in the first quarter of 2027. The solicitation does not specify a total project cost. Responses must be submitted through the SWIFT Supplier Portal. No incumbent contractor is identified. All responders must complete Attachments A (Responder Declarations), B (Exceptions form), D (Workforce and Equal Pay Declaration), and submit detailed proposals addressing solution architecture, functional and non-functional capabilities, project management and implementation methodology, testing and training approaches, support and knowledge transfer, and accessibility practices across designated page limits.