(a)(1) No later than 90 days after March 28, 2019, the Mayor shall draft a Notice of Invitation ("Notice") for an education research practice partnership for the purpose of receiving proposals from an independent, non-governmental entity that shall be responsible for conducting education research.

(2) The independent, non-governmental entity may be a university, college, nonprofit organization, or a combination of organizations joined for this purpose.

(b)(1) Prior to issuance of the Notice, the Mayor shall transmit to the Council a proposed resolution to approve the proposed Notice for a 45-day period of Council review. If the Council does not approve the proposed Notice, in whole or in part, within this 45-day review period, the proposed resolution shall be deemed disapproved.

(2) If the Council disapproves the proposed resolution, the Council may include recommendations for revisions that should be made to the Notice before it is re-transmitted to the Council for approval.

(3) Once the Notice is approved by the Council, the Mayor shall issue it within 30 days. The final Notice issued by the Mayor shall be substantially similar to the proposed Notice approved by the Council.

(c) The Notice, at a minimum, shall require:

(1) A commitment to the Partnership that shall be for no less than 10 years;

(2) An estimate of the initial start-up cost to establish the Partnership and the annual costs needed to operate the Partnership;

(3) Identification of potential sources of funding, including funds contributed by the applicant entity, funds anticipated from named private sources, and funds, if any, needed from the District for the initial start-up costs and annual operations of the Partnership;

(4) A description of the entity's current staffing level and a staffing plan for how the entity will fulfill the responsibilities of the Partnership, including how the entity plans to increase staffing capacity, whether the researchers conducting research for the Partnership will be full-time dedicated staff, and whether they shall be required to log a certain number of billable hours or be required to be faculty at the entity;

(5) Demonstration that the entity has the capacity and expertise to collect, maintain, store, clean, de-identify, use, interpret, translate and publish any data provided to it in a safe, secure, accountable, and confidential manner, consistent with relevant federal and local laws and regulations, including section 438 of the Family Educational Rights & Privacy Act of 1974, approved August 21, 1974( 88 Stat. 571; 20 U.S.C. § 1232g et seq.) and its implementing regulations, 34 C.F.R Part 99;

(6) An explanation of internal review processes to ensure the validity of research methods and outcomes;

(7) Examples of other educational research done in collaboration with either the District government or another government entity, including whether and how the entity and government partner jointly arrived at the research questions, provided interim deliverables, communicated in a meaningful way throughout the life of the project, adjusted the course of the project as needed in response to stakeholder feedback, provided results in multiple formats aligned with stakeholder need, and ensured that the work was useful and productive for the government partner, and, if not useful, what measures were taken to rectify the usefulness of the products either in the short or long term, and evidence of how this work intentionally built capacity for both researchers and government partners;

(8) An explanation of what processes are in place or would be in place to ensure accountability and transparency of Partnership work and independence with regard to funders, the public, and government entities; and

(9) An explanation of what processes are in place or would be in place to collaborate effectively with a large and diverse advisory committee designed to be a partner in all research work.

(c) The Notice shall state a deadline for responses, which shall be no greater than 60 days from the date of issuance of the Notice.

(d)(1) All proposals received through the Notice process shall be reviewed by a 6-person review panel, which shall be comprised of 3 representatives chosen by the Mayor and 3 representatives chosen by the Chairman of the Council.

(2) No later than 30 business days after the proposal deadline, the review panel shall meet to initiate review of all the proposals received in a timely manner; except, that upon the declaration of a public health emergency pursuant to section 5a of the District of Columbia Public Emergency Act of 1980, effective October 17, 2002 (D.C. Law 14-194; D.C. Official Code § 7-2304.01), the meeting of the review panel shall be postponed until 7 business days following the end of the period of time for which the public health emergency was declared.

(3) At least 2 of the representatives chosen by the Mayor and at least 2 of the representatives chosen by the Chairman of the Council shall select and approve the independent, non-governmental entity.

(Mar. 28, 2019, D.C. Law 22-268, § 104, 66 DCR 1431; Mar. 17, 2020, D.C. Act 23-247, § 402, 0 DCR 0.)

For temporary (225 days) amendment of this section, see § 2(a) of Education Research Practice Partnership Technical Temporary Amendment Act of 2019 (D.C. Law 23-38, Dec. 24, 2019, 66 DCR 14814).