Sole Source Notice

The Washington State Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) is conducting a sole source procurement to award a contract to Third Sector Intelligence, Inc. (3Si) for building the final set of data and programmatic updates to the Early Learning Data Store, known as the Child Universal Success Platform (CUSP). The contract, which will run from March 24, 2025, to June 30, 2025, aims to align and integrate CUSP inputs and outputs with other cloud-based integrated early learning data products used by the Office of Innovation, Alignment & Accountability (OIAA). Key deliverables include monthly data refreshes, quarterly platform updates, software development, data integration, technical support, and training for DCYF staff. The project requires vendors to provide proof of authorization to work on the copyrighted CUSP SaaS product and demonstrate experience with Early Childhood Integrated Data Systems. Vendors interested in submitting capability statements must do so by March 17, 2025, with DCYF intending to award the contract to 3Si in the absence of other qualified sources.

The procurement is exclusively for 3Si, who has been working with the Department of Early Learning/DCYF since 2017 and is considered uniquely qualified due to their proprietary Software as a Service (SaaS) Early Childhood Integrated Data System (ECIDS), which is the only one of its kind in the United States. The contract has a maximum value of $516,078.12, funded entirely by federal funds (ALN #93.434), with the budget structured as an initial Activity Report payment of $258,039.06 and subsequent Activity Reports of $86,013.02 each. DCYF plans to develop a transition plan by December 31, 2025, to either transfer the work in-house or repackage the product for future competitive solicitation starting January 1, 2026. The contract covers work with child care assessment and rating data, and includes provisions for ongoing technical assistance and support for the CUSP system. No specific set-aside designations or restrictions on responding organizations are mentioned in the documentation. The current infrastructure involves a specialized data analysis system with exclusive data assets and features not available in the market, which 3Si will continue to develop and maintain.