Chicago Public Schools buys from local and national suppliers across a fiscal year that runs July 1 to June 30. Before you fill out anything, read the one sentence on the CPS procurement site that decides everything else: the Department of Procurement does not accept unsolicited vendor applications.
There is no "register and wait for bids" form, unlike NYC Public Schools, which runs an open bidders list. CPS onboards a vendor for one of two reasons only. You won a solicitation, or a school or department wants to buy from you and starts the paperwork itself.
The two ways in
Win a contract. CPS posts bids, Requests for Proposals and Requests for Qualifications on its Bonfire portal, cps.bonfirehub.com. Responding to one is open to the public. The Contracting Opportunities page also carries a sign-up form for notices of future opportunities, and a 12-month CPS Sourcing Plan listing upcoming solicitation projects. Read the sourcing plan first; it shows what is coming before the bid clock starts.
Get sponsored. A Principal, Network Chief or Department Director who plans to use your goods or services files a sponsorship to onboard you. CPS is explicit that this "must be initiated by CPS and approved by CPS, not the vendor." Your job is to sell to the school. The school's job is to sponsor you.
One detail in the CPS onboarding process map catches people. If what you sell is already available through a contracted vendor, a Procurement buyer reviews the existing contracts before deciding whether to approve your sponsorship. A principal who likes you is not enough if CPS already holds a district contract for the same thing.
The $35,000 ceiling
Without a fully executed Board contract, every vendor is held to $35,000 a year in combined biddable and non-biddable purchases, across the entire district. That limit is cumulative over all schools and departments, and it applies to both Board funds and school internal accounts. The CPS Procurement Manual says to expect a clause in your contract limiting what you can earn from a product or service to that figure. Vendors without an active Board contract cannot raise it.
CPS calls splitting purchases to dodge bidding "stringing," and under Illinois law unlawful stringing of bids is a Class 4 felony carrying one to three years. The manual's example is specific: a school cannot avoid the principal's $10,000 contract limit by signing two $5,000 contracts.
Above $35,000, biddable purchases go to the lowest responsive, responsible bidder through a sealed, advertised bid with public notice at least 10 days before the due date. The Chief Procurement Officer approves bids from $35,001 to $500,000 a year. Anything over $500,000 a year goes to the Chicago Board of Education.
Sponsorship gets you a vendor number and up to $35,000 a year. Growth past that means winning a Board contract.
Four systems, four jobs
None of these systems stands in for another.
| System | What it is for |
|---|---|
| Bonfire (cps.bonfirehub.com) | Open bids, RFPs and RFQs |
| CPS Supplier Portal / iSupplier (supplier.efs.cps.edu) | Downloading purchase orders and checking invoice status. Active vendors only |
| M/WBE Compliance Reporting System (cps.diversitycompliance.com) | M/WBE utilization reporting by primes and their subcontractors |
| cpsvendorcert.com | Uploading your certificate of insurance, run for CPS by Topiary Communications |
CPS does not print or mail purchase orders, so every supplier must register on the Supplier Portal. You cannot get in until you hold an active CPS vendor number, which is why the portal is the last step, not the first.
What onboarding actually involves
Onboarding has two steps: the sponsorship, then your application. CPS's process map lists what Procurement checks: a W-9, a certificate of good standing (for LLCs, LLPs, nonprofits and corporations), a certificate of registration if you sell tangible goods from outside Illinois, a certificate of insurance and a direct deposit form.
Then come the conditional reviews, with CPS's own time estimates:
- Student contact, in person or online: Safety and Security runs background checks on your employees, about 10 days.
- Insurance: Risk Management reviews, about 10 days. You may receive an Insurance Requirements Letter from riskmanagement@cps.edu setting the coverage types and amounts.
- Technology component: ITS reviews, about 10 days. Law and EdTech may also need to review before final approval, which CPS puts at 30 to 60 days.
If you sell software or anything that touches student data, plan around that 30-to-60-day window. The Procurement Manual says any service under $35,000 that involves student data, delivers software or puts staff in direct contact with students must go to the Law Department for a contract.
Sole proprietors who do educational, consulting or speaking work at CPS sites and lack business insurance may qualify for a Board small vendor insurance program administered by Insurers Review Services (312-938-0900). It does not cover licensed professional services, repairs or maintenance.
Three deadlines matter after approval. A sponsored application is automatically rejected if you do not submit it within 60 days. Every active vendor completes a yearly supplier attestation, and your number goes on hold if you miss it by 60 days. And a vendor number deactivates after 15 months with no purchase order, after which you start over as a new vendor.
Board Rule 7-1(b) requires an approved purchase order before you deliver anything. Work done without one is not guaranteed payment. PO payments generally arrive 30 days after CPS accepts the invoice. School checks, drawn on a school's internal accounts, are generally issued the day of service.
CPS does not certify M/WBEs
CPS's office for this is Business Enterprise Development (773-553-2980, bedu@cps.edu). The Board's policies call it the Office of Business Diversity, and you will see both names. It sets goals and monitors compliance. It does not issue certifications.
The district-wide aspirational goals are 30% of annual contract dollars to MBEs and 7% to WBEs, for both goods and services and construction, under programs that run through December 31, 2028. Individual contracts carry their own Contract Specific Goals. A few categories are presumptively excluded, including electricity and gas supply, intergovernmental agreements and proprietary IT licenses.
Which certificate counts is where the CPS pages disagree. The How to Become a Vendor page says you must be certified by the City of Chicago. The Business Enterprise Development page lists the City of Chicago, Cook County, the State of Illinois, the CTA, the Illinois Department of Transportation and "all governmental certification." The goods and services policy confirms CPS also accepts the State of Illinois Business Enterprise Program, which has no personal net worth limit, where the City's cap is cited at $2,491,482.03.
Our advice: City of Chicago certification is the credential no CPS page disputes, and the City's Department of Procurement Services (312-744-4900) runs it. Our City of Chicago vendor guide covers that application, and doing business with Illinois covers the state BEP route.
Selling as a subcontractor
For most M/WBEs the realistic first CPS dollar comes through a prime. Every competitive solicitation requires an M/WBE Compliance Proposal, and your firm must already be certified on the bid date to count. Letters of intent and certification letters are due within 48 hours of the bid. Primes that fall short must document good faith efforts, so a prime holding your certificate and a quote early has a reason to call you back.
Construction works differently. CPS limits most construction bidding to pre-qualified pools (general contractors, job order contractors, architect-engineers, environmental and specialty firms), and publishes the lists on the Contracting Opportunities page. Firms outside a pool are invited to market themselves to the firms in it. Board Rule 7-8 requires payment and performance bonds on building construction, building and grounds repair and student transportation, signed by a surety licensed in Illinois, and bid deposits of up to 5% may be required. Line up your bonding capacity before a pool RFQ opens, not after.
The order of operations
- Get City of Chicago M/WBE certification if you qualify. CPS will not certify you.
- Read the CPS Sourcing Plan and sign up for opportunity notices on the Contracting Opportunities page.
- Respond to solicitations on Bonfire, or sell directly to a principal or department director who will sponsor you.
- Submit your onboarding application within 60 days, with W-9, good standing, insurance and direct deposit ready.
- Register on the CPS Supplier Portal once you have a vendor number. Never start work before a PO.
- Track your $35,000 annual total and file the yearly attestation on time.
Questions go to the Department of Procurement (773-553-2280) through its customer service request form. Invoices go as one PDF each to cpsinvoice@cps.edu, and payment questions to Accounts Payable at 773-553-2760.
Where CPS fits in Illinois
CPS is a separate buyer from the City of Chicago, with its own rules, its own portal and its own spend cap. A Chicago public-sector pipeline usually means CPS, the City and the state, each registered separately. Illinois programs lists the state-level certifications. If you also sell to New York, our NYC Public Schools guide shows how differently the largest district in the country handles the same problem.
