Upcoming E-Rate Dates:
| November 20 |
Form 486 deadline for FY 2020 covering funding committed in Wave 12. More generally, the Form 486 deadline is 120 days from the FCDL date or the service start date (typically July 1st), whichever is later. The upcoming Form 486 deadlines are:
Wave 13 11/27/2020
Wave 14 12/04/2020
Wave 15 12/11/2020
Wave 16 12/18/2020 |
Category 2 Budget Petitions for Reconsideration:
Last month’s FCC Public Notice DA 20-1218 expanded upon the FCC’s new Category 2 budget rules (FCC 19-117) for years FY 2021-2025. As discussed in our newsletter of October 19th, the Public Notice dealt with the treatment of charter schools, closed or partially closed school buildings due to COVID-19, and independent schools with part-time students. It also declined to change the rules requiring the cost-allocation of expenses associated with Category 2 equipment located in non-instructional facilities (“NIFs”). Both the part-time student and the NIF allocation issues were previously raised by Petitions for Reconsideration, seconded by supporting comments. Last week, within the 30-day appeal window, two additional Petitions for Reconsideration were filed asking the FCC to clarify aspects of the part-time student rule and to reconsider the NIF allocation rule. Specifically:
- Current FCC rules, as modified last month, permit independent schools (such as vocational schools), attended by students from multiple other districts on a part-time basis, to count those students as full-time students for Category 2 budget purposes. Recent USAC indications are that this rule might be interpreted narrowly as to apply only to stand-alone independent schools serving only part-time students. E-Rate Central’s petition asks the FCC to clarify that the part-time student rule also covered all schools within independent districts including those that service both part-time and full-time students.
Note: E-Rate Central’s petition applies only in situations in which the schools with part-time students are independent of those students’ home districts. This is not the case in many large school districts running their own career education or other special schools serving their own students on a part-time basis. States with large county school districts may ultimately seek greater Category 2 budget support for such schools.
- The State E-Rate Coordinators’ Alliance (“SECA”) petition asks the FCC to reconsider the NIF cost allocation requirement. SECA argues that eliminating NIF allocations would greatly simplify the application and invoicing process for both applicants and reviewers and that, given districtwide Category 2 budget caps, would effectively be funding neutral.
In a somewhat related development, noting that caching servers are already eligible as Category 2, ApplianSys LLC filed a petition urging the FCC to initiate a rulemaking to make caching eligible as a Category 1 service. The ApplainSys petition argues that this would “encourage the cost-effective use of E-Rate funds and reduce wasteful spend on excessive Bandwidth.”