DataBus - Vol 41 No. 3: April-May, 2001
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CSIS Announces RFP for Phase Three Participation
The California School Information Services (CSIS) Program has released a Request For Proposals (RFP) so that districts, county offices of education and other local education agencies can apply for funding to participate in Phase Three of CSIS. Nine consortia comprised of more than 150 districts and county offices of education are currently working with the CSIS Program to develop and implement solutions that will enable the accurate and timely exchange of student transcripts and assist local education agencies to electronically transmit reports to the California Department of Education. Five of these consortia received funding in July 1999 as part of CSIS Phase One, and four more consortia began Phase Two in July 2000. CSIS expects to receive between $11 and $20 million in FY 2001-02 funding to be allocated among successful applicants to form new Phase Three consortia and those districts joining any of the existing nine consortia. The due date for submitting a Phase Three proposal is June 8, 2001.
CSIS Program Overview
CSIS was created to address a variety of challenges currently faced by LEAs trying to manage student information. CSIS is responsible for developing an electronic system of student information transfer for state reporting and exchange of individual student records that will serve the state’s students, school districts, county offices of education, and school sites. Specific objectives of the CSIS program are to:
Inherent in the CSIS Program is the need to establish a means to distinguish records for the approximately 6,000,000 California K12 students. A significant aspect of this work is uniquely identifying students without compromising confidentiality. Research and design work done by CSIS and participating consortia regarding the issues surrounding this need are unprecedented in the nation. Both records transfer and state reporting require multiple years of data, a problem compounded by the fact that students attend various institutions within those multiple school years. Each student’s records are to be uniquely distinguishable from that of other students, and they are to be consistently identifiable over the entire academic career of each student from kindergarten through high school graduation. More than 570,000 students have already been assigned their unique CSIS Identifier.
Local Funding Opportunity - Phase Three RFP
The purpose of the Request for Proposal (RFP) is to solicit proposals from qualified California school districts and county offices of education to develop and implement the capability to provide electronic student data for both state reporting and individual records transfer. It is through the RFP process that CSIS fulfills its goal to "Build capacity of Local Education Agencies to implement and maintain comparable, effective, and efficient student information systems that will support Local Education Agencies (LEA) daily program needs and promote the use of information for educational decision-making by school-site, district office and county staff."
Project Scope
CSIS Phase Three will be conducted in three steps: 1. LEAs form a consortium, prepare, and submit a Phase Three proposal; · Based on the RFP requirements and additional information gained at the scheduled bidders conference, submitters are to form a consortium of Local Education Agencies (LEAs) organized around a single SIS software product that offers a comprehensive district-wide solution, and has not been previously funded by CSIS. · Submit a letter of intent identifying consortium members, including SIS vendor and product, List of total LEAs in the vendor’s SIS user base that wish to participate in Phase Three, CDE Code, total number of sites and enrollment based on FY2000-01 CBEDS for each LEA. · Submit the proposal to CSIS that describes how the consortium will plan and implement Phase Three objectives. 2. For consortia awarded a Phase Three planning grant, the consortium members prepare a comprehensive project plan for developing and implementing CSIS-capable student information systems for each participating LEA. The planning grant will provide each consortium with funding to support a 4 to 6 month period in which the consortium will develop a comprehensive plan for implementing its Phase Three activities. 3. LEAs implement their approved project plans. The approved implementation plan provides the framework for a 20 to 22 month period to implement a CSIS-capable SIS district-wide. Data are populated, extracted, formatted, validated, and transmitted via secure Internet for state reporting and records transfer.
Overall Time Schedule
Table 1. Overall Time Schedule
See Table 1, above, for the overall time schedule. Project proposals from consortia will be funded on a competitive basis, with funding intended to provide an incentive rather than to cover all possible costs. Consortia are expected to provide in-kind resources as well. The complete RFP and supporting materials are downloadable from the CSIS web site at http://www.csis.k12.ca.us/library/rfp_phase_three/. General information about the CSIS Program and its activities are described on the web at http://www.csis.k12.ca.us. Any prospective applicant wishing clarification on the RFP should contact: Bernadette McGinnis, Project Manager California School Information Services 770 L Street, Suite 1180 Sacramento, CA 95816 Phone: 916-325-0887 Email: Russ Brawn may be contacted at . |
CEDPA