E-rate Filing Deadlines
Deadlines have become one of the most confusing aspects of the E-rate program. There are now deadlines for Form 470 postings, contract awards and vendor selection, Form 471 applications, Form 486 certifications, Form 472 (BEAR) invoices, provision of services, appeals, and responses to SLD information requests.
In the course of any given year, an applicant may be subject to 5-10 separate deadlines. Miss any of these deadlines and funding may be denied or reduced. Some of the deadlines are fixed, well publicized, and apply to all applicants. Others, more confusingly, are applicant- or FRN-specific. They can be 7, 28, 30, 60, 90, or 120 days after certain trigger dates that depend on when a given applicant was funded, started or finished receiving services, filed a form, or was otherwise notified. Only a few of these deadlines are publicized by calendar day references, most must be calculated by applicants on their own. Often a single deadline will be based on multiple trigger dates and use the latest date calculated. Until recently, much of the information on deadlines was ambiguous in boilerplate SLD correspondence and was either not available or difficult to find on the SLD Web site.
To correct this problem, the SLD established a separate "Deadlines" subsection in their Web site's Reference Section (see Reference Area) with initial documents covering the following three subjects:
Service Delivery Deadlines and Extension Requests: The deadline is June 30th of the funding year for recurring services and, generally, the following September 30th for non-recurring services. This subsection describes the conditions under which non-recurring services deadlines can be extended or checked on a FRN-by-FRN basis,
Form 486 Deadlines: For the upcoming year (FY 2002), the Form 486 must be postmarked no later than 120 calendar days from either the FCDL funding date or the Service Start Date, whichever is later. For applicants funded in Waves 1-5 (i.e., before June 30, 2002) for recurring services beginning July 1, 2002, the Form 486 filing deadline is October 29, 2002.
Invoicing Deadlines and Extension Requests: For the current year FY 2001 and the upcoming year FY 2002, BEAR invoice forms must be postmarked no later than 90 calendar days after the Service End Date or the Form 486 Notification Letter date, whichever is later. For recurring services in the current year, ending June 30, 2002, this generally means that the BEAR filing deadline is September 28, 2002. This SLD subsection also discusses conditions and request procedures for extending invoice deadlines under special circumstances.
Be careful: With reduced staff coverage in July and August, and a hectic start of the school year in the fall, it may be difficult for applicants to file all of the necessary BEARs by the September 28th deadline. While the SLD may ultimately decide to extend the deadline beyond the current 90 days, we recommend that schools and libraries begin working on FY 2001 BEARs as soon as possible. As with all SLD filings, it is a risky strategy to wait until the filing deadline to submit a form that might be rejected (with no time remaining to make corrections).
The SLD also took this opportunity to establish special Form 486 and invoice deadlines for applicants that had been funded during the out-of-the-window period of FY 1999 or late in the FY 2000 funding cycle. Although the normal deadlines for these periods had passed, the SLD set new filing windows recognizing that adequate notice had not been previously given. Applicants needing to file Form 486s or BEARs for these funding years should read the SLD instructions carefully. One critical deadline is September 1, 2002.
For those seeking help in calculating applicant- or FRN-specific deadlines, we offer a hint and a tool.
Hint: The best way to determine, for example, the 120-day deadline from a specific date is to use a simple Excel formula. Enter the trigger date (e.g., 7/1/02) in cell A1 of a blank Excel sheet, then use the formula "=A1+120" in a second cell. The result will be the 120-day deadline (e.g., 10/29/02). This is a much quicker and safer method than trying to count 120 days on a calendar.
Tool: For applicants dealing with multiple applications, FRNs, and service dates, we have created three Excel Deadline Calculation Worksheets covering years FY 1999 (out-of-the-window), FY 2001, and FY 2002. The Excel workbook is available on our Web site. (see Forms Rack). The worksheets calculate individual FRN deadlines for technology plan approval, CIPA compliance, Form 486, and BEAR forms based on trigger dates for start of service, end of service, FCDL, and Form 486 notification. (Caution: the worksheets are set up with certain default dates, based on normal funding year periods, which users should carefully review and/or revise to fit their particular situations.)
The SLD posted a short notice on its Web site this week summarizing the recent court decision enjoining the government from enforcing CIPA filtering requirements for libraries. As discussed in our newsletter last week, the SLD notice confirms that the ruling: (a) applies only to libraries; (b) does not affect the requirement that libraries must have an Internet Safety Policy; and (c) leaves all CIPA requirements intact with regard to schools.
The SLD also indicated that it is working closely with the FCC to determine what procedural changes, if any, will apply to libraries. Such information, when available, will be posted on the SLD's Web site. Pending further instructions from the SLD, we reiterate the recommendations we made last week, namely:
Schools can assume that the court ruling has no impact on their CIPA compliance and E-rate filing requirements.
Libraries, not planning to filter their Internet services, should temporarily delay filing Form 486s for FY 2002 funding. Since the earliest possible deadline for filing Form 486s is October 29, 2002, there is no rush to file until additional guidance is provided by the SLD.
Library consortia, which may be concerned about the length of time required to collect Form 479s from all their members before filing their Form 486s, should proceed with their collection process. For purposes of the Form 479 Block 2 certifications, member libraries can check that they comply with CIPA if they do not provide filtering but do have an Internet Safety Policy.