Office for Education

Requests for Qualifications Process Summary

2011 Families and Education Levy

Overview
Evaluation Process
Next Steps

OVERVIEW

The RFQ process was designed to determine which organizations have a track record of successfully achieving positive academic outcomes tied to key Levy outcomes and indicators. No Levy money is awarded through the RFQ process. Schools will compete for Levy funds during the RFI process currently underway and will lay out plans for working with organizations approved through the RFQ process. If an organization is disqualified during the RFQ process, that organization would not be eligible to receive Levy funds from a school that is applying for Levy funding through the RFI process. Organizations receiving less than $5,000 per school year in total Levy funds are exempt from the RFQ process.

The RFQ process is pass/fail with no limit on how many organizations can qualify. Once qualified, an organization will remain qualified for the duration of the Levy, as long as it continues to achieve Levy outcome and indicator results. Organizations that did not submit an RFQ, were not technically compliant, or were not qualified this year are encouraged to apply in future years.

There were four categories for the RFQs in 2012:

• Elementary Social, Emotional, Behavioral and Family Support
• Middle and High School Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Support
• Expanded Learning Opportunities
• College and Career Readiness and Planning

Each category had its own set of Levy outcomes and indicators. Many organizations applied in more than one category.

The RFQs were issued on January 3, 2012 and were due to the Office for Education (OFE) on February 14, 2012. Click here to see the RFQ templates filled out by agencies. During this period, information sessions for each of the four RFQs were widely announced and held on January 12, 13, and 25, 2012 before the submissions were due. All questions and answers from the sessions, as well as those e-mailed to OFE, were posted online.

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EVALUATION PROCESS

1. Technical Compliance:
Each submission was first reviewed for technical compliance to see if submissions were received by the deadline, whether they were within the required page limit, if they included a data sample, and met other requirements in the RFQ.

2. RFQ Evaluation:

• All technically compliant submissions were reviewed by a panel of five evaluators (two from the Office for Education, one consultant, and two external reviewers).
• The RFQ submissions were evaluated using three categories: 1) Key People, 2) Previous Experience, and 3) Tracking to Success. These criteria for meeting qualifications for each of the categories were explicitly stated in the RFQs.
• At least three of the five evaluators had to recommend qualification for an organization to be qualified. In order for an evaluator to recommend qualification, the evaluator must have found that the organization met all of the qualifications for each criterion as laid out in the RFQ.
• Evaluators were given a period of time to individually review the technically compliant submittals and reconvened to discuss the proposals and make final decisions.

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NEXT STEPS

RFQs and optional Requests for Program Information (RFPIs) submitted by all qualified organizations will be posted on OFE's Web site on March 8, 2012 so schools will be able to access this information. OFE is also working with Seattle Public Schools to host regional meetings between school leaders and qualified organizations.