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E-rate Information and Resource Links

The Schools and Libraries Program of the Universal Service Fund, commonly known as "E-Rate," is administered by the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) under the direction of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The program is intended to ensure that schools and libraries have access to affordable telecommunications and information services.

School districts rewriting their ePLAN should add their Internet Safety Policy

The Texas Education Agency offers free resources for Educators on their Internet Safety webpage. In addition, the newly revised Technology Applications TEKS, effective 2012-2013, have student standards identified for Digital Citizenship at Grades K-12.

July 1st Deadlines for CIPA, E-Rate and Technology Plans

The Texas Education Agency has issued notification of changes in response to the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) rule revisions that become effective July 1, 2012, for the 2012 – 2011 school year. Download the May 11 letter from Anita Givens, Associate Commissioner.

The new requirements are applicable for all school E-Rate applicants applying for discounts on Internet access, internal connections and basic maintenance. Schools, school districts, and educational service centers that have not already updated their Internet safety policies have less than two months to do so.

If you need additional assistance regarding E-Rate, please contact Richard LaGow in the Agency’s Division of Instructional Materials and Educational Technology at 512-463-9400 or by email at richard.lagow@tea.state.tx.us.

Deadline Extended for Form 471 Certifications and Item 21 Attachments

USAC has issued two sets of letters this week – one to applicants that filed an FCC Form 471 online before the close of the filing window but did not complete the certification process, the other to remind applicants to submit their Item 21 attachments. Both sets of letters were issued on Thursday, April 19; appropriate actions must be taken on or before Wednesday, May 9.
• If you do not certify your FCC Form 471 on or before May 9, it will be considered out-of-window. You can certify an FCC Form 471 online or on paper.
• If you do not submit an Item 21 attachment on or before May 9, the Block 5 Funding Request Number (FRN) associated with that Item 21 attachment will be considered out-of-window. You can submit an Item 21 attachment online, by email, by fax, or by mail or delivery service.

Review Your Receipt Acknowledgement Letter (RAL)

USAC issues a Receipt Acknowledgment Letter (RAL) to each applicant that timely certifies an FCC Form 471. This letter contains instructions for identifying and submitting allowable corrections to the form. We suggest that you review your RAL(s) carefully and, if you notice any errors, submit corrections to USAC as soon as possible.

If the summarized data is accurate, no applicant action is required. If errors are found, or if you would like to cancel an FRN, you can correct your application or cancel the FRN using the RAL but you only have 20 days from the date on the RAL to do it (the deadline will be clearly noted on the RAL).

You can use the RAL to make almost any change to the 471 application -- including adding or removing entities from Block 4, changing the discount calculation information, or changing the amount requested on an FRN -- even if it increases your discount and your funding request! RAL changes should be faxed to 973-599-6526.

Organize and Store Documents

During the application filing process a number of documents are produced or accessed that should be filed for future reference. For example:
• Technology plans
• Requests for Proposals (RFPs)
• Winning and losing bids
• Bid evaluation matrices and other evaluation documents
• Contracts
• National School Lunch Program (NSLP) data reports
• Alternative discount mechanism documentation (e.g., income surveys)
• Draft or final budgets
You may be asked to provide or refer to some or all of these documents during Program Integrity Assurance (PIA) reviews, appeal reviews, audits, or other program activities. We suggest you take the time now to organize and file all documents related to your application in a manner that will allow you to easily locate and retrieve them. For guidance on how to organize your documentation, review the E-rate Binder Table of Contents in the Reference Area.

FCC Releases Order Implementing CIPA

The FCC released its Order to implement the CIPA (Children's Internet Protection Act) Amendments passed by Congress in 2008. The full Order is available for download as a
PDF file.

"Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act," requires that a school’s Internet Safety Policies must 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."

This means that schools are required to teach online safety to students as a prerequisite to receiving E-Rate funding for Internet access or Priority 2 funding. Below is a summary of the new FCC CIPA rules.

When do the requirements become effective?
The new requirement becomes effective for E-Rate Funding Year 2012, which begins July 1, 2012. This means you should be working on your Internet Safety Policy updates now if you’ve not already done so, to be ready at the beginning of the 2012 school year, Funding Year 15.

Are schools required to hold a new public hearing to amend their Internet Safety Policy?
No, however it is recommended that each Texas school add this to a School Board meetings at the start of school to accomplish two things:

To inform everyone that your district/charter complies with the new FCC Order and,
To record a definitive date when these changes occurred.

What must be included in the Internet Safety Policy?
Your Internet Safety Policies must include monitoring the online activities of minors and must provide educating minors about appropriate online behavior. This includes how to interact with other individuals on social networking websites and in chat rooms and cyberbullying awareness and responses. Schools must have documentation on the requirements and what curriculum is being used to comply with this Order.

What kinds of things must be included in the online behavior/cyberbullying curriculum?
The FCC decided it is entirely up to the local school district to decide how to implement the new curriculum. Further, the Commission did not offer any formal definition of cyberbullying or social networking. In an effort to clear-up a common misconception, the FCC specifically noted that Facebook and MySpace are not required to be blocked under FCC rules.

Are schools required to send USAC or the FCC a copy of their Internet Safety Policy?
No, but schools must provide USAC or the FCC with a copy of their Internet Safety Policy upon request.

Did the FCC clarify the filtering rules pertaining to portable devices?
The FCC stated they intend to request public comment in a future proceeding to consider whether CIPA/filtering applies to portable devices owned by students / staff / library patrons (such as laptops and cellular phones) when those devices are used in a school or library to obtain E-Rate-funded Internet access.

The Texas Education Agency offers information on their Internet Safety webpage and the new revised Technology Applications TEKS, effective 2012-2013, have student standards identified for Digital Citizenship at Grades K-12.

The FCC offers information on their website: http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/cipa.html

The Schools and Libraries Division provides this guidance: http://www.universalservice.org/sl/applicants/step10/cipa.aspx

The US Goverment provides: http://onguardonline.gov/features/feature-0003-featured-info-educators

E-Rate Central offers a Primer on Internet Safety Policies and CIPA that has been updated to include the new requirement.”