January 2020 E-rate Update
January 6, 2020
Happy New Year, E-raters!
I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and you’ve returned to your school or library with your mind and body refreshed and ready to tackle the FY 2020 E-rate application process! If you haven’t started yet – NOW IS THE TIME. Below are a few important updates.
FY 2020 Form 471 Filing Window Dates
The Form 471 Window will open on January 15 and will close on March 25. Please try not to wait to take new contracts to your boards in March – do whatever you can to post your 470s now and take new contracts to your boards for approval in February. If you have an existing service in a multi-year contract or have already closed your competitive bid and obtained a signed vendor contract, you can file your Form 471 as soon as the window opens on January 15. File early!
Update Enrollment/NSLP Data in EPC
If you haven’t done so already, be sure to update each school’s enrollment and NSLP data in your EPC portal by January 10. USAC hasn’t yet given us the exact Admin Window deadline yet, but it should be open until at least that date. The draft data and helpful guide are available at: https://e-ratepa.org/?p=32075. The data in your EPC portal will determine your FY 2020 E-rate discount and serve as the basis for each school or library’s Category 2 budgets. It’s important that you update this data if you haven’t done so already.
Post FY 2020 Form 470’s
If you have any existing services that are MTM or have contracts expiring June 30, 2021, be sure to file a Form 470 to competitively bid those services as soon as possible if you haven’t done so already. When filing for Internet, be sure to refer to this guide as the 470 drop downs are confusing again this year: https://e-ratepa.org/?p=31977. If you’re using the PEPPM Mini-bid procurement option for your Category 2 requests, be sure to review and follow the detailed PEPPM Guide and templates available at: https://e-ratepa.org/?page_id=6121.
PEPPM Mini-Bids – Use Updated Category/Vendor List
For schools that have chosen to use the PA State PEPPM Contract as the procurement option for their E-rate Category 2 applications, be sure to always download and use the most recent version of the PEPPM Category/Vendor List on the Master Contracts page of the PA E-rate website: https://e-ratepa.org/?page_id=6121. Some vendors are making changes to their contact data, so it’s important you always have the most updated data when issuing the mini-bids to awarded vendors.
Calculating Remaining Category 2 Budgets for FY 2020
We now know that FY 2020 has become the 6th year of the first Category 2 budget cycle, giving applicants one final year to access “unspent” C2 funds, as well as providing a (very sweet) 20% bump in the multiplier to account for the extra year. The C2 funding allocation will remain BY SCHOOL/LIBRARY for FY 2020, and will not transition to the district-wide budgets until FY 2021. To calculate the available C2 budget for FY 2020, three pieces of data are needed:
- Current Enrollment by School (or library sq ft)
- FY 2020 Budget Multiplier
- Amount of C2 Previously Committed Since FY 2015
Using this data, calculations can be performed using this formula: (C2 Multiplier x Enrollment) – Amount of C2 Funds Committed Since FY 2015
One of the easiest C2 Budget Tracking Tools I’ve found is at: https://www.fundsforlearning.com/FFLServices/c2budgetcalculator.php.
Remember: FY 2020 is a use-it or lose-it year for C2 funding because no unspent C2 funding will be rolled-over into FY 2021.
FCC Releases Exact C2 Multipliers for FY 2020
The FCC has published the final C2 multipliers for FY 2020 and they are almost exactly as we had calculated. The only difference is the non-urban library multiplier is $3.00/sq ft instead of $2.99. The final multipliers are as follows:
Schools: $195.63 x enrollment
Urban Libraries: $6.52 x sq ft (libraries with IMLS codes of 11, 12, 21)
Other Libraries: $3.00 x sq ft
If you have any questions, please contact me at jtschell@comcast.net!
— Julie
Julie Tritt Schell
Pennsylvania E-rate Coordinator
717-730-7133 – o
jtschell@comcast.net
www.e-ratepa.org