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SLD Issues 486 and CIPA Guidance for Libraries; New 486 for ALL Applicants
Message Posted September 4, 2003
At the beginning of August, I explained that because of the US Supreme Court's ruling on filtering for libraries, almost all libraries would be required to RESUBMIT their Year 6 486s as soon as the new Form 486 was revised and released. The new form is now available, as well as the SLD's detailed guidance on who, what, when, and how. I have broken this message down into two parts: 1) Information for ALL applicants (schools AND libraries), and 2) Information pertaining only to libraries.
INFORMATION FOR ALL APPLICANTS
* The new version of the Form 486 and Form 479 (for consortia) are now the only acceptable versions. They are dated August 2003.
* If you mailed a paper 486 to the SLD on or before August 14 (the last day the old 486 was available), you should be OK. If you mailed a 486 after August 14, the SLD will contact you to have you resubmit your 486 with the new form.
* Unfortunately, the online, data-entry .pdf version of the 486 is now NOT available and won't become available again until late September. This means you have to print a copy of the paper form and fill it out by hand. The form is available at: www.sl.universalservice.org/form/
* The 486 deadline for all FRNs is 120 days after start of services, which is October 29 for almost all applicants. Don't miss this deadline or they will begin deducting funding for each day past October 29 that the form is late.
INFORMATION FOR LIBRARY APPLICANTS
* Filtering is NOT required for E-rate discounts on just telecommunications services. It only applies to discounts on Internet access and internal connections.
* As of August 24th, the SLD canceled all Year 6 Form 486s (online and paper) filed by libraries that featured FRNs for Internet Access and Internal Connections. This cancellation affected ALL FRNs featured on those Forms 486s, including FRNs for Telecommunications services. (Note that Form 486s featuring ONLY Telecommunications FRNs were NOT canceled.) Both the applicants and the service providers featured in those FRNs will receive notification advising them of the Form 486 cancellations and listing the affected FRNs.
* Every applicant, whose earlier Form 486 was canceled, must file a revised Form 486. The SLD will attempt to contact any affected applicant to discuss procedures of resubmission. For deadline purposes, the SLD will accept the postmark date of the earlier Form 486 as long as the resubmission is filed by December 31, 2003.
* Any library that is a member of a consortium which has already collected Form 479s from its members for Year 6, must submit a revised Form 479 containing the new certifications to its consortium leader by September 29, 2003. Any member of consortium that has not yet collected Form 479s, must make sure to submit the newest version of the Form 479 to its consortium leader before the leader is required to submit a new Form 486 for FY 2003.
* Although we hope libraries will continue to collect E-rate discounts for Internet access and internal connections despite the new filtering requirements, we understand that some will not. (Don't forget that you just have to be "undertaking actions" for Year 6, so you probably won't want to opt out of E-rate funding at least for this year.) Libraries that do not want to undertake actions to become compliant for Year 6 may still receive discounts on Internet Access and Internal Connections for the period July 1 – August 14, 2003. The SLD will provide a form for these libraries to submit in lieu of a Form 486. These libraries agree to submit one FCC Form 472, Billed Entity Applicant Reimbursement (BEAR) Form, to request discounts for the services received during that specific period.
The Billed Entity for FRNs that feature one or more libraries unwilling to make a CIPA certification must file an FCC Form 500 to adjust their funding commitments as applicable within 30 days after filing the revised Form 486.
For the SLD's complete guidance, please refer to: www.sl.universalservice.org/reference/CIPAGuidance2003.asp.
Julie Tritt Schell
jtschell@comcast.net
(717) 730.7133 (voice)
(717) 730.9060 (fax)
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