• PY3 Appeal Status
• PY4 Receipt Acknowledgment Letters
• Alternative Discount Rate Measures
• Prospective Change of Service Rules

The following is a summary of the E-rate News for the Week of February 19, 2001, prepared by E-Rate Central. Official SLD news appears in the "What’s New!” section of the SLD’s Web site . Additional and archived information appears elsewhere on this Web site.

PY3 Appeal Status

The SLD reports that it has received 1,645 appeals on PY3 funding decisions and, as of this week, has reviewed and issued 630 administrative decision letters on these appeals. The SLD’s goal is to respond to all appeals by the end of March. New or revised funding commitment letters for successful appeals are expected to be issued beginning in April.

PY4 Receipt Acknowledgment Letters

A sample of the Form 471 Receipt Acknowledgment Letter ("RAL”) for PY4 is available at the SLD’s Web site. The letter itself contains instructions on reviewing and correcting RAL information, but several points should be noted.

1. The RAL summarizes the key data recorded for each funding request ("FRN”) on the associated Form 471. The data should be reviewed carefully to make sure that errors weren’t introduced by either the applicant or, in the case of mailed applications, by the SLD data entry staff.
2. The RAL correction process permits only certain types of changes to be made (contact information, SPINs, FRN unbundling, etc.). FRN amounts can be reduced, but not increased. Any corrections made at this stage in the processing will save considerable effort later on.
3. A two-week deadline for corrections is noted in the RAL, but this is only a guideline. The SLD does not actually put applications on hold for two weeks before sending them on for PIA review. Thus, the sooner a correction is received, the better.
4. Special care must be taken if any individual funding request is missing. A missing FRN means either that the request was rejected outright or that it was skipped in error. If an FRN was rejected, the applicant should receive an explanatory letter. Appeals to a FRN rejection must be made within the standard 30-day window. If no letter is received, the applicant should write the SLD as per instructions in the RAL. In this case, we strongly recommend that the inquiry be structured as an appeal and be submitted within 30 days of the RAL date.

Alternative Discount Rate Measures

New guidance on alternative measures for calculating discounts rates, other that eligibility for free and reduced price lunches, is now available in the SLD’s "What’s New” section of its site and at. The reference material includes more information on the use of school surveys than has been widely distributed previously.

Early indications are that discount rates will be receiving closer scrutiny in this year’s PIA review process. Any applicant who has submitted eligibility data that is materially different from NSLP data reported by their state should keep a copy of this reference information handy for responding to SLD questions. New York applicants can check State NSLP data at (see CN325 report).

Prospective Change of Service Rules

It is not uncommon for applicants’ needs to change between the time Form 471 requests are filed and the time services are actually to be used. Originally specified equipment may have been discontinued or other more cost efficient options may become available. SLD funding, however, is predicated upon initial requests. Funding cannot be applied to changes in service without SLD approval.

Towards the end of last year, SLD formally put in place a somewhat cumbersome process for requesting changes of funded services that require both vendor and applicant filings..

Last week, however, in response to an appeal by the Los Angeles USD, the FCC set forth a more flexible approach to service changes that would:

(a) apply to entire services or products (rather than individual pieces of equipment); and (b) presumably require only an applicant filing and certification process. The decision keeps in place the basic policy criteria that acceptable changes must: (a) involve the same functionality, (b) not violate any contract or bidding laws; and (c) not increase either the service price or the percentage of ineligible services.

As a result of this decision, we expect the SLD to announce new change of service procedures within the next month or two. A copy of this FCC decision can be found on the FCC’s Web site.