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The New York State Education Department (NYSED) hereby issues this “Request for Information” (RFI) to solicit information from vendors regarding the availability of software systems and services to assist NYSED with administrative reviews of its Child Nutrition Programs as mandated by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food and Nutrition Services (FNS).
1.5 Administrative Guidance for Respondents
2.1 Response Outline and Organization
The Child Nutrition Program Administration office (CNP office), within the NYSED, is responsible for administering the Child Nutrition Programs including: the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), School Breakfast Program (SBP), Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program (FFVP), Special Milk Program (SMP), and Summer Food Service Program (SFSP). The NSLP is a federally assisted meal program operating in public and nonprofit private schools and residential child care institutions which are identified as School Food Authorities (SFAs). It provides nutritionally balanced, low-cost or free meals to children each school day.  New York State operates the third largest program in the country with 1,263 SFAs and 6,249 Recipient Agencies participating in the NSLP.  The CNP office currently has 40 staff and is responsible for conducting approximately 400 administrative reviews each school year.
The CNMS supports NYSED’s Direct Certification Matching Process (DCMP) which identifies eligible children for free meals.  The DCMP is intended to certify all eligible students for free school meals without further application, who reside in a household receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or Medicaid (determined by the Medicaid Program at or below 133 percent of the Federal poverty guidelines). The DCMP increases efficiency, lowers costs and improves program integrity by reducing paperwork and increasing the percentage of eligible students who are certified for free meals.  Local Educational Agencies (LEAs) are required to conduct an electronic data match for SNAP and Medicaid households. A joint effort has been made between the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA), the New York State Department of Health (DOH) and the New York State Education Department (NYSED) to provide access to confidential electronic data to LEAs. All DCMP users must certify that this information will remain confidential in compliance with the disclosure statement provided. LEA data systems must be able to match students by indicating the corresponding assistance program (i.e., SNAP, Medicaid).
LEAs are required to conduct the online DCMP with SNAP at least three times per school year. DCMP data files are available for LEAs to access in July, October, January and April.
To accomplish a streamlined administrative review process the responder will provide information about software solutions that automate any of the following USDA-required processes:
Off-site administrative review at the school district level
On and off-site Administrative Review at the state agency level per the most current Administrative Review forms, tools and worksheets defined by the USDA
Direct Certification Matching Process (DCMP)
1.4 RFI Contact Information
Interested Entities are encouraged to submit a written “Letter of Interest,” to the NYSED contact person prior to the deadline for submission of questions. Note: This IS NOT a Request for Proposals. It is an invitation to provide the NYSED with information regarding current technologies and viable approaches to implementing Child Nutrition Program Administrative Reviews. Additionally, responses will be used to gauge the level of interest in the Administrative Review System implementation project. Information obtained may be used to develop a needs requirement upon which a future procurement might be based.  If further discussion is required, or should questions arise, please contact the NYSED contact person listed below.  Questions may be asked through April 3, 2015.  A summary of all questions and answers will be posted here by April 20, 2015.
Questions and Answers (128 KB) - Posted April 20, 2014
Participation in this RFI is voluntary, and NYSED will not pay for the preparation of any information submitted by a respondent or for NYSED’s use of that information.
Vendors are advised that if any part of their response to this RFI contains trade secrets or is submitted to NYSED by a commercial enterprise or derived from information obtained from a commercial enterprise and which, if disclosed, would cause substantial injury to the competitive position of the subject enterprise, then vendors should identify such in their response.
E-mail Letters of Interest To (Due Date is April 27, 2015):
New York State Education Department
Attention: Child Nutrition Program: Administrative Review System RFI
Room 501 W EB
All questions regarding the Child Nutrition Program: Administrative Review System RFI must be submitted in writing, via E-mail preferably, to:
Submitted questions and the answers to those questions will be publicly posted and emailed to vendors that have either submitted questions or registered their interest in the RFI.
NYSED may issue announcements amending this RFI in response to vendor questions.  In addition, after reviewing RFI responses, NYSED may request clarifying information from vendors who offer information of specific interest to NYSED. NYSED may, at its discretion, invite interested entities to visit its offices at 89 Washington Avenue, EBA 375, Albany, New York, for further facilitated discussions.
1.5 Administrative Guidance for Respondents
Response to questions issued
COB, April 27, 2015
Deadline for receipt of responses
Evaluation of responses begins
NYSED requires that responses be returned in electronic format and will not accept paper submissions. NYSED can accept a variety of electronic formats including MS-Word, MS-Excel, MS-PowerPoint, Portable Document Format (.pdf) files or other industry standard file types.
The response should include a cover letter on company letterhead, characterizing your interest, background and reply to the response request information specified in Section 2.1.  NYSED prefers to limit the main response body to a dozen pages or less.  NYSED will accept up to two dozen total pages (to grant additional flexibility).
2.1 Response Outline and Organization
Responses should be organized as follows:
The respondent should provide a cover letter (limited to no more than two pages in length) that includes the following corporate information:
Note: Provide additional contact persons as needed.
The vendor shall summarize its experience with the Child Nutrition Programs.  An indication of the extent and scope of the experience should be provided, including:
Primary system(s) and implementation service(s) provided
Length of time your company has been providing the system
Provide a summary of the state agencies with whom you have provided systems or services.  Include a description of  the work you performed and the dates of service
The environments in which the systems were implemented
A description of your approach to safeguarding confidentiality
Based on the experience outlined above, vendors should identify the following:
Lessons learned from past implementations
General implementation time frames from previous efforts
What your company believes is its competitive advantage
Company literature and brochures describing Administrative Review Systems may be included as part of the response.  While additional information links are not disallowed, NYSED prefers not to receive links that require extensive searching to find pertinent information.
System information should include:
Overview of how the system works (including a system overview diagram).
Does the system support smart phones and tablets in addition to desktop and laptop computers?
What web browsers does the system support?
Whether the system has the ability to integrate with existing data systems or whether the system functions stand-alone.  If the system integrates – what are the requirements for integration?
What are the hardware and software requirements for using the system?
Are any major releases currently planned? If so, please provide a description of the envisioned enhancements.
Do you have system solution available to meet the USDA Professional Standards requirements proposed to go into effect in July 2015?
Is the system typically hosted by the vendor (or a third party) or installed in-house?
Does the system allow for managing and assigning various levels of access and authorization (role based access)?
Describe the system’s reporting capabilities including:
Ad-hoc query and reporting
Tracking of findings and corrective actions
Notifications and correspondence between schools and the State Agency
Describe any data validation and edit checks that the system performs
Include information about how you would typically provide support during and after implementation.  Include information on the following:
Configuration and customization services for NYS-specific needs
Software upgrades and maintenance services
Describe options on how independent a customer is after implementation:
What aspects of support of the system are expected to be covered by NYSED’s functional and IT staff versus what is expected to be handled by your company?
What are the business and IT resources required in our organization to support the system after implementation?