E-rate Update - Reminders and New Documents
Message Posted March 6, 1998
FINAL DAYS TO SUBMIT FORM 470
SLC RELEASES SEVERAL DOCUMENTS TO ASSIST SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES COMPELTE
FORM 471
The final day to post a Form 470, both for existing contracts and for requests for new services during the 75-day window, is fast approaching. Technically, March 17 is the last possible day to post a Form 470 during the window, considering the first day after the 28-day wait period (April 14) is the last day to submit a Form 471 during the window. Please do not wait until March 15, 16 or 17 to post your Form 470 as it leaves you with almost no time to review bids, sign contracts, complete and overnite-mail Form 471, and still be considered in the 75-day window.
As of March 3, numerous -- 484 to be exact -- Pennsylvania schools and libraries still had not completed the certification page/signature page and mailed it to the Schools and Libraries Corporation. This page must be received by the SLC before they will process your Form 471.
As of March 3, 259 incomplete Pennsylvania applications were still remaining on the SLC database. If you intend to complete a previously started online application, please remember that your 28-day waiting period will begin on the day the application is formally submitted, not on the day it was initially created, and as such should be completed by next week at the latest.
As anticipated, today the Schools and Libraries Corporation released several new documents to assist schools and libraries complete Form 471. The documents are posted on the [www.slcfund.org] web site under the Reference section. However, you will receive them in their entirety via e-mail from me in subsequent messages. They contain information ranging from what are the minimum fields required in Form 471, and what will automatically cause your application to be rejected, to what happens if there is a small error on your application, and what happens to your Form 471 after it is submitted to SLC.
In addition, the SLC has stated that two additional filing tools will be released shortly that will greatly help schools and libraries complete their Form 471s. I encourage you to wait until these documents are available to submit your Form 471. They are:
A Form 471 Template - To facilitate entry of data on the Form 471, SLC will soon provide a Microsoft Excel template of that form on the SLC Web Site. Applicants with Microsoft Excel (version 7.0 for Windows 95) will be able to download that Form 471 template and use it to fill in the form, print it, and mail it to the SLC Client Service Bureau. The words and block sizes for most of the items on the form will be "locked" so that the applicant cannot change them, but the applicant will be able to enter electronically the information it is required to provide in the form. This template will accommodate the transfer of information from other databases into the form.
With respect to Block 4 and Items 15 and 16 of Block 5, the official FCC Form 471 permits applicants to attach extra sheets to complete these items. The Form 471 template will make data entry for these Items easier by providing, as attachments to the form, expandable tables in the same format as these Items that will be able to accommodate as many entries as the applicant wishes to make.
A Pre-Discount Cost Calculation Grid - Item 17 of the Form 471 requires applicants to check a box to confirm that, for each service provider listed in Items 15 and 16, the applicant has attached a list of all the services that a service provider will provide to it and for which it is seeking discounts. Item 17 on the template includes that box to be checked, and the applicant will have to attach the lists. SLC is developing an optional Pre-Discount Cost Calculation Grid that would: help applicants separate service components that may and may not be eligible, separate services provided to eligible entities from those provided to ineligible entities, and separate services for educational purposes from those for ineligible purposes -- thereby minimizing the risk that discounts will be denied because eligible and ineligible services have been bundled in one row of these Items, help applicants determine the appropriate pre-discount costs to enter in Columns 8-10 of Items 15 and 16, help service providers ensure proper billing of schools and libraries receiving discounts, and help service providers ensure proper billing of SLC for payment of those discounts. The Grid will be developed so that, if sent in with the Form 471, it would satisfy the requirement for the lists of services to be attached per Item 17.
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