Dane County Early Childhood Zones Employment and Education Services

This program will provide a wide range of services to clients in the Dane County Early Childhood Zones in order to increase their access and readiness to engage in adult education and/or to seek and secure employment.

Project Details

• Reference ID: 427011-PMM
• Department: Human Services
• Department Head: John Schlueter (Director)

Important Dates

• Questions Due: 2026-05-09T04:59:00.000Z
• Answers Posted By: 2026-05-16T04:59:00.000Z

Evaluation Criteria

• Program Context & Overview (10 pts) —

  Please limit your response to this section to two (2) pages.

  1. Provide an overview of the education and employment sector in Dane County, specifically as it pertains to low-income parents of young children.
  2. Provide a description of some common barriers faced as well as strengths possessed by the target beneficiaries of this program. Explain how current conditions in the labor market and education/training systems favor and/or challenge this specific population. 
  3. Provide a high-level overview of how you propose to connect clients with employment and education opportunities within the context you describe. 
• Program Strategies and Activities (25 pts) —

  Please limit your response to this section to four (4) pages.

  1. Describe all proposed program activities under each of the three service areas in detail. This description must include (but is not limited to) the specific services to be offered and why they are appropriate for the specific target population of this program, how clients’ needs and skills assessment will be carried out and used to inform service, and how client progress will be tracked.
  2. Please specify which services will be provided directly by program staff and which will require referral. For any services that will require referral please provide an overview of the agencies you plan to refer to, and how you will work with those agencies.
  3. Describe how the proposed activities under this program specifically lead to the Deliverables laid out in section 2 of this RFP as well as meet the Needs and Expectations laid out in Section 3.
  4.  Describe how you will create and maintain collaborative relationships and effective referral networks with other ECZ agencies.
• Staffing (20 pts) —

  Please limit your response to this section to three (3) pages.

  1. Describe your staffing plan for this program and how it will ensure effective delivery of program services to diverse populations in their preferred language, particularly the large number of Spanish-speaking clients.
  2. Provide position descriptions for key positions in the staffing plan. (It is not required that these positions already exist in your organization. Parts of this staffing plan may be contingent upon award of this contract.)
  3. Discuss relevant experience and skills of any current staff who will work directly on this program.
• Experience and Qualifications (15 pts) —

  Please limit your response to this section to two (2) pages.

  1. Describe the experience and qualification of your agency to provide programs that are welcoming to persons of all backgrounds and cultures, including language access practices. Include any explicit plans your agency may be undertaking to improve in this area.
  2. Describe the experience and qualification of your agency in providing education and employment services. In your response please provide examples of relevant programs your agency has delivered within the last five years. Include program goals, population served and number of participants, partnerships with employers, training providers, or educational institutions, and measurable outcomes (e.g. employment placement rate, credential attainment, job retention at 3/6/12 months, wage gains, educational advancements).
  3. Describe the experience and qualification of your agency to work closely with partner agencies in serving clients
• Quality Improvement (10 pts) —

  Please limit your response to this section to two (2) pages.

  1. Describe how your agency would monitor the quality of your proposed program
  2. Describe how program data would be used to inform quality improvement efforts, including the measurement of and performance on client participant outcomes. In your response, please reference your examples from your response to 4B, above, and describe lessons learned and how those lessons informed program improvements.
  3. Propose and define at least 4 performance indicators. These indicators should correspond to the program deliverables; you may also propose additional indicators.   
• Cost (20 pts) —

  Points for cost will be awarded using a relative formula. The proposal with the lowest cost will receive the maximum number of points available for this section. All other proposals will receive a proportion of the cost points according to the following calculation:

  (Lowest Proposed Cost ÷ Respondent’s Proposed Cost) × Maximum Cost Points Available = Score

  In plain language: the lowest-cost proposal earns all available points. Other proposals earn fewer points based on how their cost compares to the lowest. For example, if your proposal costs twice as much as the lowest proposal, you would receive about half of the cost points.

• Local Vendor Preference (5 pts) —

  Per Dane County ordinance, a local Dane County vendor automatically receives five (5) points toward the evaluation score.

  Vendors located within the counties adjacent to Dane County (Columbia, Dodge, Green, Iowa, Jefferson, Rock, or Sauk) automatically receive two (2) points toward the evaluation score.

  Locally Operated Vendor means a supplier or provider of equipment, materials, supplies, or services which has an established place of business within Dane County and whose business is registered and authorized to do business in the State of Wisconsin. An established place of business means a physical office, plant, or other facility. A post office box address does not qualify a vendor as a Locally Operated Vendor. Dane County Ordinance 25.04(5)

Submission Requirements

• RFP DOCUMENT UPLOADS
• Upload your Proposal (required) —

  Please DO NOT include Cost information in this section.

• Budget Backup —

  Please download the below documents, complete, and upload.

• W9 Upload (required) —

  Upload your company's W9 form.

  NOTE: The W9 is required to be signed within the past 12 months

• Supplemental Document Upload —

  Upload any additional or required information documents that supplements this solicitation.

• VENDOR INFORMATION
• Agency UEI number:
• Registration with Wisconsin DFI (required) —

  At the time of contracting with the Department of Human Services, agencies must be registered entities in good standing with the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions.

  Please check this box to indicate that your agency is registered or will be registered in good standing with the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions. 

• Please explain. (required) —

  You've indicated that your agency is not and will not be registered with Wisconsin DFI. At the time of contracting with the Department of Human Services, agencies must be registered entities in good standing with the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions.

• Local Vendor Preference (required) —

  Select a Local Vendor Preference:

  Vendors located within Dane County automatically receive five points toward the evaluation score.

  Vendors located within the counties adjacent to Dane County (Columbia, Dodge, Green, Iowa, Jefferson, Rock, Sauk) automatically receive two points toward the evaluation score.

  Vendors located outside of Dane County of the 7 counties adjacent to Dane County would choose "No Preference".

  NOTE: A post office box address does not qualify as an established place of business.

• Fair Labor Practice Certification (required) —

  Has your company been found by the National Labor Relations Board ("NLRB") or the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission ("WERC") to have violated any statute or regulation regarding labor standards or relations in the seven years prior to the date this bid submission is signed?
  
  If yesis answered, a copy of any relevant information regarding such violation is required to be uploaded with your bid submission.
  

  Additional information about the NLRB and WERC can be found using the following links:
  www.nlrb.gov and http://werc.wi.gov.

• Cooperative Purchasing (required) —

  Reference Guidelines - Section F.

  Does your company agree to furnish the commodities or services of this bid to municipalities and state agencies?

• Designation of Confidential and Proprietary Information (required) —

  Please specify what information you wish to designate as confidential and proprietary. Please identify section/ pages/ topic /documents, etc.

  NOTE: Pricing sections cannot be designated as confidential and proprietary.

  If nothing will be designated, simply type "None" in the section below.

• RFP ADDENDA
• I understand that if any addendum is issued I will have to acknowledge the posted addendum. (required)
• If an addendum is posted after I have submitted my proposal response and the resulting addendum requires action to be taken either in the Specification Section or Pricing Section, I understand that: (required) —

  1. I will have to unsubmit my proposal response.

  2. I will have to acknowledge the posted addendum.

  3. I will have to take action in responding to the changes on either the Specification Section or Pricing Section.

  4. I will then have to resubmit my proposal response.

  Further instructions on addendum(a) postings can be found here.

• SIGNATURE DECLARATION
• Solicitation Response Declaration (required) —

  In submitting and confirming this solicitation response, we certify that we have not, either directly or indirectly, entered into any agreement or participated in any collusion or otherwise taken any action in restraint of free competition; that no attempt has been made to induce any other person or firm to submit or not to submit a solicitation response; that this solicitation response has been independently arrived at without collusion with any other vendor competitor or potential competitor; that this solicitation response has not been knowingly disclosed prior to the opening of bids to any other vendor or competitor; that the above statement is accurate under penalty of perjury.

  Further, by submitting this solicitation response, firm agrees with all the terms, conditions, and specifications required by the County in this solicitation and declares that the corresponding solicitation response and pricing are in conformity therewith.

  I have read and understood the entire document.

  I declare under penalty of false swearing under the law of Wisconsin that the foregoing is true and correct.

• Signed on: (required) —

  Write in month, day, year and city/state in which the submission occurred.

  Example: June 27, 2025 in Madison, WI

• Electronically signed by: (required) —

  Provide First Name, Last Name and Title

• Project Description (required) —

  Please provide a brief description of the intended purchase.

• Pricing table required? (required) —

  Always select "Yes" unless this is a Highway WisDot Design Project

• External Pricing Document? (required) —

  Is an external pricing document being used?