$4.3 million in Year 2 E-rate Funds Remain Unspent by PA Applicants
Message Posted November 7, 2000
~ Deadline is Nov. 20, 2000 to Request Reimbursement ~
The Schools and Libraries Division has just informed us that there is a large sum of money that was committed to E-rate applicants in Year 2 that remains unspent or unclaimed. Of the total $180 million, more than $4.3 million is listed under the names of Pennsylvania applicants. The names of these PA applicants, along with the pertinent Funding Request Number and funds remaining, is posted on the PA E-rate web site at: http://www.pde.psu.edu/usf/index.html.
If your entity is NOT on this list, it does not mean that you have collected all of the funds for a Funding Request. This list shows the entities in Pennsylvania that have not submitted a Form 486 yet, and therefore have not collected ANY of that particular Request. There are probably several hundred other Requests that have funds remaining but which have not been invoiced either through a BEAR form or a Service Provider Invoice Form (SPIF).
Every FRN on this list is there because a 486 has not yet been submitted, however there could be several reasons for an applicant to have funds remaining from Year 2:
a. The project may have come in under budget and therefore the applicant didn't need all of the committed funds.
b. The project may not have been able to be completed by Sept. 30, 1999 and therefore the applicant could not use the committed funds.
c. The service provider placed discounts on applicants' bills and has not invoiced the SLD for the amount of the discounted services.
d. The applicant obtained services, but has not submitted a BEAR Reimbursement Form to recapture their funds. (Most likely due to a large
turnover in personnel over the summer months and different people taking charge of E-rate filings and the most likely reason for an entity to be on the list.) If your entity is on this list, you only have 3 weeks to submit the proper paperwork to the SLD to get reimbursed.
WHAT TO DO
1) If you haven't done so already, be sure to submit the Form 486. This can be submitted at the same time as the BEAR form, but it just can't be submitted AFTER the BEAR Form is submitted.
2) Submit the BEAR Reimbursement Form to the SLD so it is received at the SLD by Nov. 20, 2000. Be sure that it has been signed by your service
provider and that it's only asking for reimbursement for funds that were actually spent and were committed to you in Year 2.
3) If your service provider discounted your Year 2 bills, be sure that they know to invoice the SLD using their invoice form by Nov. 20, 2000.
Both forms are available online at: http://www.sl.universalservice.org/form
TWO IMPORTANT NOTES
** The Nov. 20 does not and will not apply to those applicant who submitted Year 2 Out of the Window Requests. Those applicants are now receiving their Receipt Acknowledgement Letters for those applications and will be receiving calls from PIA in the next 60 days. Funding Commitment Letters, including revised spending dates, will be issued at that time.
** No, an entity's unspent Year 2 funds cannot be carried over to year 3.
If you have any questions, please contact the SLD at 888-203-8100.
-- Julie
Julie Tritt Schell
Executive Policy Specialist
Pennsylvania Department of Education
333 Market Street, 10th Floor
Harrisburg, PA 17126
(717) 705-4486
(717) 787-7222 - fax
jtritt@state.pa.us
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