Florida Education Procurements and Bid Protests

Are you a vendor to, or would you like to do business with, educational entities in the State of Florida, such as school districts, state colleges, state universities, or state agencies such as the Florida Department of Education? We can help you put together bids and proposals that meet the legal requirements for competitive procurements, and we often help vendors with either bringing or defending bid protests, particularly when a request for proposals or an invitation to negotiate has been issued.

A notice of protest is usually due within 72 hours. To talk with us about an education procurement, call us at 850-567-8445 or fill in the message form on this page.

Timelines in procurements are often very short; some are measured in hours, not days. So the earlier we can become involved in and familiar with the substance of your procurement, the more help we can usually be. Also, certain things have to be done before a notice of intent to award is posted, such as challenging the bid specifications, asking necessary questions during the bid process, and challenging specifications that the answers do not clarify. The timing of a specification challenge matters for another reason: a vendor that does not challenge the specifications within the short window the law allows usually waives the right to object to them later. Once the notice of intent to award is posted, a protest generally cannot rest on the argument that the specifications themselves were unfair or unclear, even if those specifications decided who won. So a vendor is usually better served by getting us involved before an award is noticed or a protest is filed.

Which Rules Apply to Which Purchaser

• School districts and Florida College System institutions are “educational units” under the Administrative Procedure Act, so a protest generally follows section 120.57(3), Florida Statutes: the notice of protest is due 72 hours after the decision is posted, and the formal written protest 10 days after the notice.
• State universities follow Board of Governors Regulation 18.002: a notice of intent to protest within 72 hours, a formal protest and protest bond within 10 days, and review of the university’s final decision by petition for certiorari in circuit court.
• The Department of Education and other state agencies purchase under chapter 287 and section 120.57(3), with a protest bond of 1 percent of the estimated contract amount (section 287.042(2)(c)).
• For competitively bid construction and facilities contracts, a school board or a college or university board of trustees may require a larger protest bond, set by section 255.0516.

Our companion website, FL Bid Protest, goes through these procedures step by step.

However, we are also used to getting calls when there are only 10 hours left before the deadline to file a notice of protest, and we will do our best to help when the clock is running out. Once a bid protest is filed, and particularly once it has been referred to the Division of Administrative Hearings (DOAH), cases move very rapidly, with the hearing beginning within 30 days unless the parties agree otherwise. This means all the discovery and preparation for trial has to be done on a very expedited basis. One has to fit into several weeks what is often done over the course of several years in general civil litigation.

We work with businesses large and small, both those based in Florida and, often, those doing or seeking to do work in Florida but based elsewhere. We often serve as local counsel for national or international businesses seeking to do business in Florida.

If you are a vendor in the public education sector in Florida, whether before school boards, state colleges, state universities, or state agencies, give us a call at 850-567-8445 and we can discuss how we can help you put together, win, and deliver on winning proposals.