• Important End of Year Reminders
• Special Responsibilities for Consortia Leaders
• New Instructions on SPIN Changes and Service Substitutions
• Unsuccessful Appeal of the Week

The following is a summary of the E-rate News for the Week of June 4, 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.

Important End of Year Reminders

July 1, 2001, is less than three weeks away. It is a critical date for E-rate applicants. The following is a brief summary of actions that need to be taken either before or shortly after this date. All have been discussed in previous issues of the E-rate News of the Week but, in our experience, have not received adequate attention by many applicants.

• Most schools and libraries, which have been involved in the E-rate program since PY1, need to have their technology plans updated and re-approved by July 1. Technically, applicants without approved plans will be ineligible to receive PY4 discounts on any services received between July 1 and the approval date. If the plan is not approved until October 1, for example, the applicant would only be eligible for only nine month's of recurring services in PY4.

  Web site references:

  Developing the Technology Plan

E-rate Application Tips - Tech Plan Primer

• To receive PY4 discounts on Internet access and internal connection services, schools must be able to certify, at a minimum, that they are "undertaking" (or, in the case of libraries, "evaluating") actions towards PY5 compliance with the Internet filtering and policy requirements of the Children's Internet Protection Act ("CIPA"). Again, to be eligible for PY4 discounts for the full year, these actions should be taken – and documented – by July 1.

  Web site reference:

  Specific CIPA Guidance for Year 4 "Undertaking Actions" Certification
  

• The SLD will be busy throughout the summer. The review of PY4 applications continues and funding awards will hopefully begin in July. Applicants should take steps to assure that there is phone, fax, mail, and/or e-mail coverage during the summer months so that PIA inquiries do not go unanswered or that, if necessary, the 30-day appeal deadline on funding decisions is not missed. Applicants who did not specify alternative summer contact information on their Form 471s should be particularly careful.

  Last year, the SLD provided a Web site resource for providing or updating summer contact information. Similar action is expected later this month.

• Once June is over, it will be time to collect final bills for PY3 services and file BEAR forms for discount reimbursements. Although we expect the SLD to publicize a mid-November deadline for BEAR submissions, the earlier you file, the earlier you get paid. The BEAR processing and payment cycle is typically about two months.

Special Responsibilities for Consortia Leaders

Consortia leaders shoulder a special responsibility to assure that all their members are in compliance with the technology plan and CIPA requirements. Failure to do so may jeopardize discounts for the compliant members.

CIPA compliance requires specific documentation by consortia leaders. Beginning with PY4, consortia leaders must collect a Form 479 from each member certifying that the member is in compliance. Since this is a new form and not yet available, this is going to require a late summer or earlier fall collection process.

If a consortium leader cannot get Form 479s from all its members, and/or cannot assure that all members have approved technology plans, special care must be taken to prevent discounts from being provided to non-compliant members. Pending formal SLD guidance on this issue, we suggest the following:

• Prior to filing a Form 486, a consortium leader should publicize a deadline for Form 479 receipt and for plan approval notification. To the extent that a member is not compliant by then, a Form 500 should be submitted to reduce the funding award to exclude discounts for that member (either entirely or for any period from 7/1 to the compliance date). Documentation on this calculation should be retained. Then a Form 486 can be filed with the understanding that the compliance certification applies only to members for which E-rate discounts will be used.
• When BEARs are filed, they should provide discounts only for the covered
  members. If the supplier is discounting bills directly, applicable member billing must be coordinated with the vendor.

This is admittedly a bit complicated, but it beats the alternative in which funding is denied for the entire consortium because of a few noncompliant members, or in which the leader is forced to expel noncompliant members as of July 1 to protect E-rate discounts for the others.

Looking ahead to PY5, it is also important for consortia leaders to be able to document authorization to submit consortia applications on behalf of their members. The best way to do this is to ask all members to submit letters of agency. This subject, together with a sample letter, was discussed more fully in an earlier issue of News of the Week referenced below.

Web site references:

SLD: Consortia – Lead Member Responsibilities

E-rate News for the Week of 12/4 – 12/8/00

New Instructions on SPIN Changes and Service Substitutions

The SLD has updated its Web site with revised instructions for the procedures to change service providers (SPIN changes) or to request approval for a minor contract change (or service substitution). Applicants about to do either should read the following references.

Web site references:

SPIN Change Guidance

Service Substitutions

Unsuccessful Appeal of the Week

Every once in a while we see a FCC appeal that, while not setting an important precedent, is worth sharing, if only for its amusement value. Our favorite this week was by an applicant, that we won't name, who had appealed first to the SLD and then to the FCC for not receiving internal connection funding in PY3 (when the cutoff was 82%). The applicant argued that, although its discount rate was currently only 49%, its national school lunch program count would rise "as the economy starts to slow down."

The SLD ruled, and the FCC affirmed, "that an applicant may not use projections to figure out its discount percentage based on the condition of the economy."