Year 6 Form 471 Filing Window Now Open: Caution Given
Message Posted November 7, 2002
The Year 6 E-rate 471 Filing Window opened on Monday, November 4. They have switched to a different format for the online form and are having some major difficulties. I suggest that if you have posted your 470, waited the required 28 days, and are ready to submit your 471 -- wait a few more days.
Why? You have until January 16, 2003 to file, and if you try to do it now, you'll just get frustrated.
Important Notes Regarding Year 6:
1) If you haven't done so already, file your Form 470s NOW. Then, you will have a full month (from the second week in December until January 16) to evaluate your bids, sign your contracts (or select providers), and complete your Form 471. Don't wait until after Thanksgiving to post your 470s....you'll regret it after the holidays.
1) The SLD STRONGLY encourages applicants to separate their priority 1 and priority 2 Form 471 requests this year. This way, they can process the priority 1 requests and send FCDLs, instead of holding up the entire FCDL in order to process priority 2 requests.
2) All Year 6 correspondence is in yellow and they now call funding years by the first year of the cycle. Meaning, Year 6 is now Funding Year 2003.
3) If you are going to file on paper, a few notes: There is a new 471 this year, with the date of October 2002 at the bottom of the page. With the exception of the new library discount calculations (see previous message), and new warnings regarding the importance of technology planning and being able to pay the eligible and ineligible costs, nothing else has changed on the form. They also now have hash marks (gray boxes) in order to make the fields scannable.
The SLD strongly encourages you to use the new 471, but if you need to, you may still use the old 471, with the date of October 2000 at the bottom of the page.
Unfortunately, the SLD has not made available the new paper 471 in a typable format. Meaning, you have to print it and type directly on the form. They have removed the older version of the form from their website, but E-rate Central continues to have the old (and acceptable), typable version of the form on their website at: www.e-ratecentral.com in the Forms Rack section.
Julie Tritt Schell
jtschell@comcast.net
(717) 730.7133 (voice)
(717) 730.9060 (fax)
| 
