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NC School Connectivity Initiative

BEAR PIN Removal Update

July 12, 2021

From the Schools and Libraries (E-rate) News Brief

We have deployed the new BEAR Access Tool and the new BEAR Form login screen. We are also moving the BEAR Form credentials for current BEAR Form filers into this new tool and testing the results for completeness and accuracy.

Starting July 12, this will be the process for logging into the BEAR Form:

  • Log in to One Portal.
  • Choose the BEAR Form option from your One Portal dashboard.
  • On the new BEAR Form login screen, enter your Billed Entity Number (BEN). We suggest that you click the BEN Name button to display the name of the billed entity to verify that you have entered the correct BEN.
  • Click the Login button. You should see the main page of the BEAR Form, where you can start a new form, continue a saved form, or get historical information on BEAR Forms filed for your BEN.

If you have trouble accessing the BEAR Form:

Make sure you are using the correct email address. The new tool will populate your One Portal username (email address) as your BEAR Form login email address. If you have used more than one email address to file BEAR Forms in the past, you must log in to One Portal with the email address associated with the BEN for which you intend to file a BEAR Form. You will see an error message if our records show that your email address is not associated with the BEN you entered.

For users with multiple email addresses, you can consolidate your access to all of your BENs under the same email address by completing and submitting a BEAR access template (see below) for the BEN(s) that currently are associated with other email addresses.

Use the new BEAR access template to request BEAR Form access. You may be filing BEAR Forms for the first time, or you may have access to file BEAR Forms for some BENs but need access for other BENs. You can make either type of request by completing and submitting a BEAR access template.

We will post the BEAR access template early next week. The request process will be very similar to the process for submitting the old PIN access template, with the following differences:

  • You must have a user account in EPC to request access to the BEAR Form. Another user cannot request access on your behalf.
  • All fields on the template must be completed. However, we can enter the customer service case number in the first field if you forget.
  • We have provided some formatting improvements. For example, some five-digit zip codes have one or two leading zeros, and you will now be able to enter those successfully.

To start, complete a BEAR access template and attach it to a customer service case in EPC. We will process BEAR access requests twice a week, and send you an email when your access has been granted. However, you do not have to wait for the email before you can file, because the email is informational only and does not include a PIN or other login credentials. Check your work. The most common reason applicants did not receive PINs in the past is that they entered a misspelled or incomplete email address. If there are blank fields on your BEAR access template or your email address is not in a valid format, we will describe the problem in your original customer service case and ask you to submit a corrected template.