Seven Years Running the Development Team Behind Chicago Public Schools' Public Digital Platforms
Chicago Public Schools is one of the largest school districts in the United States. Its public-facing web platforms are how hundreds of thousands of families find schools, compare programs, locate services, and access district data. Those platforms need to work, stay accurate, and remain accessible to every family in the district. That takes a stable, senior development team with deep institutional knowledge, not a rotating cast of contractors.
The Engagement
JS Technology Solutions has held a technology consulting partnership with CPS Information & Technology Services (Web Services) for seven consecutive years, under a Master Technical Service Consultants Agreement. The model is staff augmentation with accountability: we place and run the development team that builds and maintains CPS public-facing digital platforms. CPS gets a team that already knows the systems, the data, and the stakes. We handle sourcing, continuity, and delivery.
What the Team Builds and Maintains
The school profile and data-transparency pages families use across more than 600 schools, published under the CPS data-transparency policy. The Skyline PreK-12 curriculum website. Public service-finder maps for summer meals, school options, and health centers. Data dashboards for district reporting. And district-wide web accessibility work to the WCAG 2.1 AA standard, so every platform works for every family, including those using assistive technology.
Why It Has Lasted Seven Years
Staff augmentation engagements usually decay: developers rotate, knowledge leaks, quality drifts. Ours has not. The same firm has run this team through multiple contract cycles because continuity is the product. When a developer transitions, we manage the knowledge transfer. When priorities shift, the team shifts with them. CPS never has to re-explain its own systems to its own vendors.
The Takeaway
Long-running public-sector platforms need vendors who stay. Seven years of continuous delivery on public-facing systems, at one of the largest districts in the country, is the strongest evidence we can offer that we build for the long term and operate what we build. A named reference is available on request.