With input from external stakeholders, the Department of Early Education and Care has drafted a set of comprehensive business requirements for the development of a Unified Computer System to support the implementation of the Department's Strategic Plan. This system is envisioned to replace multiple current EEC systems used by early education and care programs, educators, families, intermediaries, EEC staff, and other agencies.
EEC is currently developing pieces of the overall vision to support the Commonwealth's Professional Development needs. The Educator Registry will be the first release of this effort this spring. EEC is also soliciting input from software development vendors on how best to implement improvements to financial assistance and licensing, among many other planned improvements.
Vendors interested in providing input into the implementation of the Unified System can find more information on the Commonwealth's procurement system Comm-PASS under solicitation document number "RFI EEC001".
What Will Be Included in the Unified System?
The Unified System will include the following four highly integrated business components:
- Child/Family Access and Assistance includes functionality to intake, manage, and support all children and families known to EEC, including those that are receiving subsidized child care.
- Licensing, Monitoring, and Support describes functionality to intake, manage, and support all programs known to EEC including those licensed by EEC and licensed exempt programs. This includes programs with contracts, vouchers, or grants for child care related service and other early education and care programs.
- Professional Development explains the functionality to maintain a registry of early education and child care educators including their professional certifications and information about professional development opportunities.
- Purchase of Services defines the functionality to support a standardized contracting process for the various services purchased by EEC including contacts for provider slots, vouchers, grants, and other services.
A summary of the envisioned system and how it is planned to support the EEC Strategic Plan is included in the Executive Summary. The Unified System Detailed Requirements Document contains the details of what the new system should do to support fifty-seven different early education and care business processes.
- Executive Summary
(13 pages, 1.08 MB). - Unified System Detailed Requirements Document
( 58.47 MB). While the document is long, it is designed to be readable and understandable in discrete pieces. The individual requirements for the new system are grouped into the four main business components by business process. Please refer to the Table of Contents or the Requirements Index Appendix to find the business processes of interest to you. Additionally, there are summaries at the beginning of each major section of the document.
On Wednesday, August 5, 2009, EEC conducted a webinar discussing the planned functionality for the Unified System.
- Webinar discussion which is approximately 57 minutes in length, 41 MB Windows Media Video (.wmv) file.
- Webinar presentation in pdf format
EEC would like to thank everyone that has participated to date in the development of the vision for the Unified System. We look forward to continuing to work with you to achieve the goals of the Unified System and the EEC Strategic Plan.
Information provided by the Department of Early Education and Care. Created: May 07, 2010; Last reviewed: May 10, 2010.