The Los Angeles Unified School District is the second-largest school district in the country, with more than 520,000 students across most of the City of Los Angeles and all or part of 25 other cities. It buys pens and laptops, legal and architectural services, arts enrichment, food, and a steady pipeline of construction and repair work.
Three things trip up suppliers who already sell to other Los Angeles agencies: LAUSD's bids are not on RAMP, a vendor number on its own gets you nothing, and the district runs its own small business certification.
Your RAMP account does not show LAUSD bids
If you registered with the City of Los Angeles, you did it on RAMP, the regional portal the City uses for registration and bid postings. Our City of Los Angeles vendor guide walks through it. LAUSD is a separate government with its own system, and its small business page says so directly: the district will no longer post bidding opportunities on external websites like LA RAMP.
LAUSD runs on SAP Ariba. You need two separate Ariba registrations, plus a third system if you build:
| System | What it does | Where |
|---|---|---|
| LAUSD Supplier Portal (Ariba self-registration) | Gets you an LAUSD supplier number so the district can issue you a purchase order and pay you | lausd.sourcing3.ariba.com |
| SAP Business Network Discovery | Where LAUSD posts district-wide construction and non-construction solicitations, and where you respond | LAUSD's public Discovery profile, ANID AN01650823748 |
| QualityBidders | Contractor prequalification for construction work only | lausd.qualitybidders.com |
LAUSD's Discovery job aid warns that the Supplier Portal uses a separate login from Discovery. Your LAUSD vendor number is ten digits starting with a 1; your Ariba Network ID (ANID) is a different identifier. Firms that register in one and stop are the firms that never see a bid.
The new-supplier sequence from LAUSD's registration sheet: complete the New Supplier Registration Request, answer the questionnaire Ariba emails you, upload a W-9, receive your ANID, then ask Vendor Services (psg-vsu@lausd.net, (562) 654-9404) for your vendor number. It is free. Ariba may pitch a paid Enterprise account, and LAUSD says the free Standard account is all you need.
There is no such thing as an "approved District vendor"
That line is from LAUSD's procurement FAQ. A supplier number entitles you to nothing. It only means you can receive a purchase order if a school or office chooses to issue one.
Buying is also centralized. Schools enter a shopping cart and the Procurement Services Division decides how to buy and issues the PO; since July 1, 2023, Procurement picks the method, which is why a school's vendor of seven years can suddenly be asked to bid. The FAQ says schools "should not be approached by salespeople," so a brochure at the principal's office is the slow route.
The thresholds Procurement works to, per the FAQ:
- Professional services up to $25,000: a school submits a cart with your quote and certificate of insurance. Processing takes up to 15 days.
- Goods and general services up to the state bid limit: same cart process. The FAQ still cites $114,800, but the California Department of Education's December 2025 letter raised the Public Contract Code 20111 limit to $119,100 effective January 1, 2026.
- Above those levels: a Request for Procurement Action and a District-authored Statement of Work start an informal or formal competition. Processing for $25,000 to $250,000 takes up to 60 days.
Repeat work sits on benches: master agreements awarded by RFP or IFB, several vendors each. The department or school that needs the service starts the bench, never a vendor, and the only way on is to win that competition. Discovery matters more than any relationship.
LAUSD certifies small businesses itself
New York City Public Schools does not certify anyone, as our NYC Public Schools guide explains. LAUSD does. Its Small Business Program, run out of the Facilities Services Division, sets the goals that matter:
- 25% Small Business Enterprise (SBE) participation on all District contracts, set by the Board of Education in February 2003 and reaffirmed in October 2013.
- 5% veteran participation. The 2013 resolution raised the DVBE goal to 5%, and the SBE Resources page states a 5% VBE goal. A VBE must be at least 51% veteran-owned, managed day to day by veterans, and headquartered in the US.
- 10% Micro Business Enterprise participation on informal contracts.
The goals are size- and veteran-based; LAUSD's procurement and small business pages carry no MBE or WBE goal. An MBE or WBE certificate still helps with primes and other buyers, but at LAUSD the credential that earns a preference is SBE, Micro or VBE.
You have two ways to get counted:
- Self-certify as an SBE when you register in Ariba. It is the fastest route. LAUSD notes this certification is accepted only by LAUSD and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.
- Bring an outside certification. LAUSD accepts SBE, DVBE/VBE and Micro SBE certifications from the California Department of General Services, the City of Los Angeles, LA Metro and Los Angeles County. Email them to psg-vsu@lausd.net once you have a supplier number. DGS DVBE and Micro certificates also count as SBE participation on District construction bids.
Size is judged against SBA size standards for your NAICS code. If you also want state work, the DGS certification does double duty; our guide to doing business with California covers it.
The district's SBE programs flyer, linked from its certification page as of October 2026, spells out the preferences. SBEs get an 8% bid preference on informal contracts for maintenance and repair or non-facilities goods and services, up to 3% on formal construction contracts valued up to $1 million, and up to 13% of qualifications scoring points on facilities professional services, best value and design-build work. Micro SBEs get another 2%. VBEs get 10% on informal contracts. You can use only one program per bid.
LAUSD lists certified firms publicly on its SBE vendor list, and its own certification FAQ points out that large primes often need certified small businesses to meet subcontracting goals.
Construction: prequalify on QualityBidders first
Facilities work has its own gate. Contractor prequalification moved to QualityBidders, and the old method was phased out by February 13, 2026. Safety prequalification covers informal contracts; prime prequalification covers formal contracts, master JOC contracts, best value and design-build.
You must be prequalified at least five business days before the bid date, and hold a California contractor's license when you bid. Applying less than 30 days out, email the Prequalification Unit ((213) 241-2651, prequalification@lausd.net) with the project name and bid date. First-tier MEP subcontractors holding an A, B, C-4, C-7, C-10, C-16, C-20, C-34, C-36, C-38, C-42, C-43 or C-46 license must prequalify; other subcontractors under a prequalified prime need not.
If bonding capacity holds you back, take the free Small Business Boot Camp: nine weeks, two hours a week, every spring and fall. It covers raising bonding capacity through the SBA Surety Bond Guarantee Program and Contractor BondWorks, the district's bond and finance assistance program, plus prequalification and LAUSD's Owner Controlled Insurance Program. Spring 2027 registration is open.
Insurance, software and the cone of silence
The FAQ lists minimum insurance for agreements under $250,000:
- General liability: $1 million / $2 million aggregate
- Professional liability: $1 million / $1 million, for professional and consulting services
- Sexual abuse and molestation: $1 million / $1 million, for any virtual or direct contact with students
- Cyber liability: $1 million / $1 million, only when your scope of work touches District data systems
Above $250,000, Procurement sets insurance case by case with Risk Management.
Instructional software that needs a login or touches personal information must pass LAUSD's Procurement of Digital Solutions (PoDS) review before anyone can buy it. Vendors may apply only for pre-K-12 classroom products, at udipp.lausd.net, and should expect a Data Use Agreement and Section 508 and WCAG 2.0 AA requirements. Start before a school is ready to buy.
Once a solicitation is announced, the Contractor Code of Conduct imposes a cone of silence until the Board Secretariat posts the board report on the award. Contacting the requesting department, evaluators or board members about the contract in that window risks disqualification.
Standard payment terms are Net 45, so enroll in direct deposit (EFT) at registration and plan your cash flow around a 45-day receivable.
The order of operations
- Self-register in LAUSD's Ariba Supplier Portal and get your vendor number from Vendor Services.
- Self-certify as an SBE at registration, or email a DGS, City, Metro or County certificate to psg-vsu@lausd.net.
- Register separately on SAP Business Network Discovery and follow LAUSD's profile.
- For construction, prequalify on QualityBidders well ahead of any bid date. For classroom software, start PoDS now.
- Line up the insurance limits above.
- Bid on bench RFPs in your category, and approach primes with your SBE status and their 25% goal in hand.
The Small Business Program is at sbe@lausd.net and 213-241-1341; Procurement Customer Support is (562) 654-9009.
Where LAUSD fits in the Los Angeles picture
LAUSD, the City of Los Angeles and Los Angeles County are separate buyers with separate registrations. A City SBE or DVBE certification counts at LAUSD; a City registration does not. Our California state programs page covers the state-level layer that sits on top of all three.
