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Year 9 (2006-2007) and Other E-rate Updates
Message Posted April 21, 2006
~ First Year 9 Funding Wave
~ PIA Reviews
~ 471 Status Tool
~ New SLD Deadlines Tool
~ SLD Report on Site Visits
This is the time of year in the E-rate cycle where action is happening behind the scenes but not much is being announced (hence the infrequent messages to this listserve!). That's about to change. The SLD has just announced that on April 26, 2006, the first funding wave for Year 9 will be mailed. And just in case you're wondering, that's a full two months ahead of last year. This early notification of priority 1 services means that applicants will have the opportunity to receive discounted bills in July, if they are diligent about filing their 486s promptly and contacting their vendors to let them know they want their bills to be discounted. I'll post a message when I have the wave 1 list, but in the meantime, here are other updates.
Year 9 PIA Reviews Underway
Many of you have already been contacted by PIA with questions about your applications. And since many of you used the online Item 21 attachment tool, I expect that the level of questions you received this year are less than in previous years. If you haven't yet been contacted, don't worry… you will be. And the sooner your turn around the answers to their questions, the faster you'll get funded. The most common questions we're seeing this year have to do with:
-- the number of telecom lines of a particular FRN (if you didn't list this on your Item 21 attachment and you don't know the answer, you should reach out to your vendor to find the answer so you'll have it ready to go when you're called.)
-- validating the buildings in your district that are Non-Instructional Facilities. Most of you received questions to validate these NIFs last year, but apparently the SLD did not register these validations in their database. So you will receive these questions again. Typically, they are 2 yes or no questions and look like this:
"If this entity is a non-instructional facility, it can be eligible for services under certain circumstances. For Application 123456, please provide a written Yes/No response indicating whether either of these two following descriptions accurately and completely describes your school, school district or library’s situation, and if so, which one or both:
a) Is the non-instructional facility is owned by the school, school district or library and is used solely for school, school district or library business? (Yes/No)
b) Do only school, school district or library employees use the non-instructional facility? (Yes/No)"
The answer to these questions, by the way, is expected to be Yes. But if you have NIF that is leased, or is used by other non-school employees, that's OK, too. You should just explain in your response that the building is leased, but still used just for the district. Or in cases where it's used by both school employees and other individuals, you should explain that none of the E-rate services for which you're requested discounts will be used by any of the ineligible individuals or that you've done the appropriate cost allocation.
As always, if you have any questions about a PIA question, please don't hesitate to contact me and I'll help guide you through your response.
Form 471 Status Tool
Applicants that are interested in knowing where their 471 currently stands can find out on the SLD’s website – http://www.sl.universalservice.org/menu.asp – under the 471 column “Application Status.” The tool gives you the status of all 471s associated with your entity, so be sure to have your entity's entity number handy when you use the tool. After you enter your entity number, it will give you a generic page, click Continue at the bottom. The next page will show you a list of each 471 you started or completed for Funding Year 9, the description you assigned to each 471, and the current status of that 471. Below that information will be a list of all possible status remarks that could have been used, and a brief description of what each means. For a 471 to be considered as filed within the window it must at least say "Certified In Window" or one of the other steps after that description. Here is a list of all of the status descriptions.
Cancelled
Complete
Incomplete
Certified In Window
Certified Out of Window
Initial Review
Available for Final Review
Available for Quality Assurance
Quality Assurance 1
Quality Assurance 2
Held for Contact Person
Held for Policy Guidance
FCDL Issued xx/xx/xxxx
SLD Deadlines Tool
The SLD has posted a new tool on its website to assist applicants and service providers in determining the deadline for particular program forms, requests, and actions. The tool provides general information on deadlines and a specific page for each deadline, together with a means of determining the deadline and a link to additional information. It's available at: http://www.universalservice.org/sl/tools/deadlines/default.aspx. The 486 deadline calculator is especially helpful.
Another user-friendly deadline tool is available on the PA E-rate website under Helpful Documents: http://www.e-ratepa.org/helpful_docs_timeline.htm which provides each step in the application process and the timeline for when each step has been or should be completed.
New SLD Report from Site Visits Many PA applicants have been the lucky recipients of Bearing Point Site Visits, part of the SLD’s 1000 Site Visit Outreach Initiative, which began in January 2005. The applicants are selected randomly based on a recent SLD invoice and receive a 3-4 hour visit from a Bearing Point consultant (the company contracted with by SLD to perform these visits). During the visit, the consultant asks about 100 questions relating to bid evaluation, tech planning, document retention, how well your State E-rate Coordinator is doing (ah hem), as well as requests to have copies of invoices, packing slips, teacher training logs, cancelled checks, etc. If you receive notice that you will receive a visit, please let me know and I can provide you with a list of the questions you'll be receiving and the documents they'll need you to have on-hand.
Although the site visits are billed as a way for the SLD to find out how E-rate is actually being used, they are and should be considered a mini-audit as Bearing Point reports back to the SLD on any areas they feel that rules or procedures have been broken.
One benefit of the site visits is a recent report, released in March, which provides a comprehensive state-by-state summary of the first year’s 851 site visits. It also provides a thumbnail sketch of the benefits being realized by numerous schools and libraries. A copy of the report, entitled Focusing on Success: Examples of How the Universal Service Fund is Helping Schools and Libraries around the Country, is available at:
http://www.universalservice.org/_res/documents/about/pdf/usf-success-stories.pdf.
Thumbs up to the PA schools and libraries that received site visits as of January 2006 are:
Clearfield Area School District
Delaware County Library System
Elementary School
Ephrata Area School District
Erie City School District
Gateway School District
George Junior Republic Vocational School
Glen Mills Schools
Intermediate Unit 06
Jim Thorpe Area School District
Johnsonburg Public Library
Lake-Lehman School District
Lancaster County Career And
Lancaster School District
Line Mountain School District
Mahanoy Area School District
Mastery Charter High School
Northern Tioga School District
Pittsburgh School District
Portage Area School District
Reading School District
Rockwood Area School District
Russell Byers Charter School
Shipley School
St Thomas Aquinas School
Technology Center
Visitation School
Warren Library Association
West Philadelphia Achievement Charter
World Communications Charter School
Julie Tritt Schell
jtschell@comcast.net
www.e-ratepa.org
(717) 730.7133 (voice)
(717) 730.9060 (fax)
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