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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.

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.

CIPA, E-Rate and Technology Plans

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

The new FCC requirements are applicable for all school E-Rate applicants applying for discounts on Internet access, internal connections and basic maintenance. Schools, and school districts, should now have their Internet safety policies updated.

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.

School District Compliance Review Example

Download an example of a USAC CIPA compliance review below. There are three requirements that all applicants must meet in order to be considered CIPA compliant.

Example of a school district Compliance Review

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 FCC 11-125 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 CIPA information: http://www.fcc.gov/guides/childrens-internet-protection-act

The SLD guidance: http://www.universalservice.org/sl/applicants/step06/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.”