SBE: New IFB - Universal Mental Health Screening Tool

The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) is entering into this contract to secure comprehensive implementation of universal mental health screening for students in 3rd through 12th grades across Illinois. This effort advances the State’s commitment to a coordinated, prevention-oriented behavioral health system for children and youth.

In accordance with Public Act 104-0032, annual mental health screenings will be made available at no cost to all students in Grades 3–12 by the 2027–28 school year. These screenings are intended to function as an early identification and prevention tool designed to identify emerging behavioral health needs, reduce stigma, and connect students to timely and appropriate supports. ISBE’s not to exceed budget for this procurement is **$7 million** (Initial Implementation not to exceed **$1 million**, Year 2 not to exceed **$3 million**, Year 3 not to exceed **$3 million**)

Assessment/Screening

The Vendor shall:

• Provide validated, brief (requiring no more than 10 minutes to complete under standard administration conditions and without accommodations), evidence-based, trauma-informed mental health screening tool(s) that offer a self-report option for students and are appropriate for universal screening of students in Grades 3–12.
• Provide a configurable screening platform that allows authorized State and district users to tailor the screening tool array, user permissions, screening workflows, and applicable accessibility and integration settings to accommodate varying State and district implementation needs.
• Provide array of tools that identify potential indicators related to internalizing, externalizing, and trauma-related childhood mental health challenges.
• Provide a secure electronic data collection portal for administration and management of screening activities.
• The screening platform shall support multi-language access in compliance with the Illinois Department of Innovation and Technology (DoIT) Weglot application standard and shall at minimum support the following languages: Spanish, Tagalog, Ukrainian, Simplified Chinese, Arabic, Hindi, and Polish.
• Ensure all student data are encrypted during transmission and at rest. [...] Cryptographic modules used to protect student data shall be FIPS 140-2 or FIPS 140-3 validated.
• Maintain an incident response plan and notify ISBE within 24 hours of discovering any suspected or confirmed data breach or security incident.
• Maintain and provide a current SOC 2 Type II report covering the Trust Services Criteria for Security, Availability, and Confidentiality for the systems, infrastructure, applications, and operational processes used to deliver the screening platform.
• Ensure the screening platform implements Illinois' Single Sign-On (SSO) solution, Okta, to provide authorized users with a single set of login credentials consistent with ISBE identity governance and access management policies.
• Submit an integration strategy to ISBE for approval within forty-five (45) days of contract execution.
• Incorporate a consent-tracking module to ensure that screening data are in compliance with current parent/guardian consent and student assent.
• Provide initial and ongoing staff training and professional development related to screening administration, interpretation of results, confidentiality requirements, and referral procedures.
• Establish and maintain a Help Desk to provide authorized users with technical assistance [...].
• Ensure the screening platform has the capacity to support statewide deployment serving an estimated 1.3 million students annually [...].

Milestones and Deliverables

- Platform ready to be used for universal screening: **No later than July 1, 2027**.

Instructions and requirements to submit a bid response are found in the attachment titled “Invitation for Bid Vendor Instructions and Requirements”.

**Bonding Requirements:** N/A

Subcontractors are allowed.

The Vendor must have a minimum of three (3) years of experience developing, implementing, and maintaining a validated behavioral or mental health screening platform deployed at scale.

Key personnel shall remain assigned for at least twelve (12) months from go-live, unless otherwise approved by the Agency.