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Year 5 (2002-2003) Form 486s due by October 28, 2002.
~ 901 PA FRN's still need 486s submitted ~
~ Consortia filers must collect 479s from members ~
Message Posted September 23, 2002
This is the first friendly reminder that for nearly all applicants, the Form
486 for Year 5 must be filed by October 28, 2002 in order not to have your
funding reduced. This deadline was imposed starting last year because of
the new CIPA regulations. And judging by the amount of funding that was
lost last year due to late-filed 486s, this change hasn't become commonplace
to many applicants. As of September 23, there were 901 FRNs that did not
have 486's filed for them yet. This is out of 2695 total FRNs funded (or
33%).
The Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) requires E-Rate applicants to
certify compliance on the Form 486 EACH YEAR. The deadline for funding year
2002 (Year 5) is October 28, for services that started on July 1. After
that, the deadline is 120 days from the start of service or 120 days after
the date of the Funding Commitment Letter – whichever is later.
Although libraries do not need to comply with CIPA filtering regulations,
they do need to comply with the CIPA acceptable use policy regulation, which
means they, too, must meet the 486 filing deadline.
As you will recall, last year was a grace period for applicants to become
CIPA compliant (your first year in the program after CIPA was passed).
Which means that if you filed in Year 4, you were REQUIRED to be CIPA
compliant (filtering and acceptable use policies in place) by start of
services (July 1, 2002 for most of you). If you did not file in Year 4,
then Year 5 is your grace period year and you must be compliant in Year 6.
There is a new 486 this year, although old 486s still are being accepted.
It is available at: http://www.sl.universalservice.org/form/.
Here are some hints for filing the 486:
-- The 486 still must be filed on paper, although an online 486 should be
available within the next few months.
-- Include ALL of your funding requests on the same form. There is no need
to file a separate 486 for each FRN.
-- Meet the Minimum Processing Standards: All pages must be included, billed
entity information must be complete, service information must be complete,
the CIPA certification must be checked (Item 11 (a) for most), and sign the
form, sign the form.
-- Mail the form with proof of postmark and delivery to SLD Kansas.
Consortium filers:
The Billed Entity for a consortium must collect a Form 479 from the
administrative authority of EVERY member of the consortium when funding has
been authorized for Internet access or internal connections. Even if only a
single member of the consortium received Internet access or internal
connections funding (at least that is the current rule). This form must be
collected from consortia members before October 28, 2002 as well, as it is
certifying CIPA compliance for consortia members so that the Billed Entity
can submit the 486 on behalf of the consortia. Remember: Form 479's don't
get submitted to the SLD; they need to be retained by the consortia Billed
Entity for 5 years in the event of an audit.
If the consortium filed only for telecommunications services, there is no
need to collect the Form 479.
There are a number of documents on the SLD web site on filing the 486
and CIPA compliance:
http://www.sl.universalservice.org/reference/Form486Deadlines.asp
http://www.sl.universalservice.org/reference/CIPAGuidance.asp
http://www.sl.universalservice.org/reference/CIPA.asp
If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me.
-- Julie
Julie Tritt Schell
jtschell@comcast.net
(717) 730.7133 (voice)
(717) 730.9060 (fax)
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