E-Rate Manuals – E-Rate manuals are now ready and can be ordered on the website: http://tpesc.esc12.net/erate/workshops.html
Beginners Training – We are currently making our summer training schedules that will once again be presented via Webinars. June seems to be a possible month for these webinars but no decision has been made to data. Watch for details to be released soon.
Technology Plans - Don't forget that technology plans covering July 1, 2010 - June 30, 2011 are required to be approved by July 1, 2010 (only 2 monthly away). If you're a public or charter school entity and are unsure about the status of your technology plan, login to the ePlan system (https://www.sedl.org/cgi-bin/mysql/eplan/eplan.cgi) and double check the status of your plan. Although you have missed the March 31 deadline for getting those to TEA so they guarantee they will be reviewed and approved before July 1, you should immediately take action of plans that need either updating or plans that need to be submitted for approval. Please DO NOT WAIT any longer. Now is the time to take action to assure the tech plan does not keep you from getting your much deserved E-Rate funding for FY 13.
2010 FCDLs - USAC is expected to begin issuing FY 2010 Funding Commitment Decision Letters (FCDLs) very soon. For those applicants lucky enough to be funded in Wave 1, the next step will be to file the Form 486. Although it will probably be several months until Priority 2 applications are funded, USAC has reported $900 million in unused funds from previous years that is available for rollover into FY 2010. If the FCC approves the rollover (which they have typically have done), it likely means that FY 2010 requests could again be funded at a lower percentage.
Status of FY 2009 Applications:
Priority 1 (telecom and Internet access): Many of our Texas schools have already been funded and the remaining FRN’s are being actively reviewed. If you have questions, call the Client Services Bureau (CSB: 888-203-8100) and request information.
Priority 2 (internal connections and basic maintenance): Funding is still being approved at 80% and above, and denied at 69% and below, although it is expected that the threshold may go lower than 80%.
CIPA Amendment - In October 2008, Congress passed the "Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act," which contained a provision requiring schools' Internet Safety Policies to include "... educating minors about appropriate online behavior, including interacting with other individuals on social networking websites and in chat rooms and cyberbullying awareness and response." Essentially this means that schools will be required to teach online safety to students as a prerequisite to receiving E-Rate funding. Although the law is 19 months old, the FCC has not yet released the official Order that will implement the new requirements and set deadlines for compliance. It is believed that the Order, when released, will have the new provisions begin July 2011. In the meantime, I do recommend that if you are currently writing or rewriting your Internet Safety Policy, be sure to include this new provision. In addition, your school should be thinking about how you will actually implement the new law when it does become effective, if you aren't providing such online behavior education already. (Libraries are exempt from the new provision.)
Audits - Although the FCC has promised that the harsh FCC OIG attestation audits that applicants endured over the last three years will not be repeated, IPIA (Improper Payments Information Act) audits are slated to resume in the next few months. Specifically, we anticipate more audits than before (720/year as opposed to 250), but the audits will be conducted nearly entirely from remote locations and are slated to last only a few days, unlike the 3-6 week on-site audits that we previously experienced.
E-Rate NPRM - The FCC has announced that at their May 20 Open Meeting, they will vote to release a Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) specifically related to the E-Rate recommendations contained in the National Broadband Plan that was released in mid March. The National Broadband Plan, available at http://download.broadband.gov/plan/national-broadband-plan.pdf, set forth 12 E-Rate recommendations, but few specifics on how to implement each recommendation. This NPRM is the document which will seek comments from the E-Rate community on very specific ideas. After the NPRM is released, it must be published in the Federal Register (which could take a month or two), and then interested parties will have 30 days to submit comments, and then 30 days to submit reply comments.
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