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NC School Connectivity Initiative

E-rate September News

September 26, 2022

In This Edition:

  1. PRC Allotments Sent Out!
  2. USAC Announces E-Rate 2022 Fall Training Schedule
  3. CIPA Compliance Requirements
  4. EPC Administrative Window Opens October 25, 2022
  5. Funding Year 2023 Category 2 Projects
  6. Service Delivery Deadline Extensions for Funding Years 2020 and 2021
  7. WAN RFP Considerations
  8. WAN Special Construction Process
  9. SAM.gov
  10. Fall Boot Camp/RFP Filing Assistance

PRC Allotments Sent Out!

It’s that time! On Monday 9/26/22, the first allotment was sent out to all of you. Please check with your finance department to ensure your allotment has been received. Allotments were sent for E-rate funded applications through Wave 19. The allotment shows up as School Connectivity Funds in PRC 073 for Districts and PRC 036 for Charters.

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USAC Announces E-Rate 2022 Fall Training Schedule:

We highly encourage you to attend the USAC training sessions this fall. The training sessions will once again be virtual, and registration for each session is now available on the Webinars page. You can also click on the links below for each session to register for that specific training. The sessions are for E-Rate program participants at all levels and will include opportunities to ask questions.

NC DPI E-rate Staff will hold an hour long “Office Hours” to answer your questions after each of these sessions. Links are below to sign up for the trainings and for the NC DPI led office hours after. During the office hour, just visit this website and click the link below to join.

  • October 27, 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
    Registration Link: EPC Administrative Window
    Join Us After: NC DPI Office Hours (3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.)
    Description: USAC will discuss the EPC Administrative Window, the period during which applicants can make updates to their profile information in the E-Rate Productivity Center (EPC), to prepare for the upcoming FCC Form 471 application filing window.
  • November 3, 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. EDT 
    Registration Link: E-Rate Post-Commitment Process
    Join Us After: NC DPI Office Hours (3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.)
    Description: USAC will discuss the E-Rate Post-Commitment Process and other post-commitment activities. Topics include starting services, the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA), service substitutions, appeals, and more.  
  • Eligible Services 101: To be announced

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CIPA Compliance Requirements:

Each PSU that participates in E-rate is required to be CIPA compliant. Requirements can be found here. We will be holding a mandatory CIPA webinar in October. Please look for information in your email soon. 

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EPC Administrative Window Opens October 25, 2022

The EPC administrative window is the period during which applicants can make updates to their profile information, library square footage, and entities. This includes EPC users and consulting firms associated with your entity.

Please wait for the State Valid File (SVF) to make any changes to student counts and NSLP.  We will be sending an SVF file December with your student counts and child nutrition data information. You will update these numbers at that time. It is VERY IMPORTANT that you do not use other data for these counts. EVERYONE will be updating their numbers this year. 
 
USAC has completed this process for applicants whose profile information was updated during the Program Integrity Assurance (PIA) review of their FY2022 applications. Applicants can now review their profiles and make any additional updates. 
 
The administrative window will open Tuesday, October 25, 2022 and will close shortly before the FY2023 application filing window opens in early 2023. After this time, applicant profiles will be locked, and you will not be able to make changes to your profile information. 
 
For detailed information on updating entity profiles, you can refer to the EPC Administrative Window page. Here are a few reminders for those of you who are ready to start updating your profiles: 

  • School districts report their student counts separately for two different purposes – to calculate their discount and to calculate their Category Two (C2) budget. For the C2 budget calculation, you can request a replacement C2 budget if student count, based on the FY23 State Valid File, (or square footage for libraries) information has changed but you are not required to do so. School districts can update their individual school profiles or report a total number in the school district profile. 
  • If you have new child entities (individual schools for school districts or library branches for libraries), the Customer Service Center (CSC) can create them for you. Open a customer service case in EPC or call CSC at (888) 203-8100 for assistance. 
  • For changes affecting your FY2022 application, submit an FY2022 Receipt Acknowledgment Letter (RAL) modification request or FY2022 appeal before you add new entities or new entity subtypes to your organization’s profile information. This will allow us to process your RAL modification or appeal more quickly. 

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Funding Year 2023 Category 2 Projects:

If you’re planning a Category 2 Project for Funding Year 2023, we encourage you to get started early! Here is some important information for newer applicants and seasoned filers: 

  • Did you know? MCNC provides no-cost network assessments and project guidance. They can help you assess what your school’s needs are and get you ready for E-rate filing. Get started simply by sending an email to cne@mcnc.org! 
  • Plan, prepare, get ready, get set: get those upcoming CAT2 projects planned out early. By early, we mean now is a great time. You’ll want to get your project needs together and send your mini-bids out by the holidays.  
  • We plan to host a mini-bid training for one and all to attend. More details to come, but we plan to have it in the first half of December. Stay tuned and plan to attend! This refresher is important for all to attend: we’ll highlight current processes and detail any new changes. 

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Service Delivery Extensions for Funding Years 2020 & 2021:

Last week the FCC issued an Order granting a waiver and extension of the service delivery deadline for FY2020 and FY2021 non-recurring funding requests which have a current deadline of September 30, 2022. The deadline is now September 30, 2023. Contact your E-rate Coordinator if you have any questions. 

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WAN RFP Considerations:

Consider requiring vendors to include in their proposal the number of residential and business customers (separately) the vendor serves and/or will serve in your RFP / Form 470 for any WAN needs. Also consider having criteria in your evaluation of bids that benefits those vendors that provide service to residential and business customers. E-rate funding is provided by taxpayers, and we should be doing everything we can to promote public benefit of E-rate projects, within funding rules. We are all aware of what is commonly referred to as “the homework gap” where rural access to the Internet is limited. In many rural counties, the school system is the largest employer and drives the economy. We can encourage vendors to build-out infrastructure to the residential areas that are less profitable by leveraging E-rate funding decisions.  

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WAN Special Construction Process:

The E-rate program has significant filing requirements for “Leased Dark Fiber” and “Self-Provisioned Networks” beyond “Leased Lit Fiber” that must be met. Most significantly is the requirement to seek bids for all three (Leased Lit, Leased Dark, and Self-Provisioned) and consider all responsive proposals to compare the cost-effectiveness of all three service offerings over a defensible period of time. Fiber – Summary Overview – Universal Service Administrative Company (usac.org). We are not able to perform your bid evaluations, but we can review your process and help ensure your filing is complete.  

If you are considering WAN bids that may require special construction, please reach out to the School Connectivity team (Connectivity@dpi.nc.gov) as soon as possible so that we can assist you with the filing and required DPI review process, especially if you are seeking “State Match for Special Construction.” 

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SAM.gov:

The FCC began using Unique Entity Identifiers (UEI) with the ECF program.  USAC is now encouraging all E-rate participants to register for or confirm/update their UEI registration information.  “How To” videos can be found on our website here. 

You can confirm your registration by following these directions: 

  • Go to SAM.gov (website)
  • Click on the “Search” menu at the top
  • Click the “+” next to Select Domain on the left 
  • Click Entity Information – then click Entities (in blue) 
  • Scroll down to the Entity drop down 
  • Enter the Unique Entity ID (if you type the UEI correctly the name will appear below in bright blue) 
  • Towards the top, on the right will show the entity 
  • Click the blue name of the entity, this will open the entire record 
  • Scroll all the way to the bottom 
    • If you are the administrator, you should see “Taxpayer Information” and be able to modify the record
    • If you are not the administrator, the information above will not be available.

If you have a login to this system but do not see your Taxpayer information in your profile, you are NOT the Administrator. You will either need to have the Financial/Business Officer that set up the account originally perform the above, or, if they are no longer with you, you will need to change the Account Administrator as per the below: 

To change the Account Administrator: 

  • Go to FSD.gov 
  • Scroll to the middle of the page – there will be six white rectangles 
  • Click on Become an Entity Administrator 
  • The middle section will walk the person through the process 
  • The attached Template must be submitted on School Letterhead 
    • ALL INFORMATION ENTERED MUST MATCH EXACTLY the data as it appears on the record 
    • Ex: if the word “The” is left off of the record below – it will be rejected 
    • If the address is typed incorrectly, it will be rejected 
  • Once the letter is notarized, it must be uploaded to the FSD.gov website following the aforementioned directions 

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Fall Boot Camp/RFP Filing Assistance:

  • Registration for Boot Camp ends October 1. Dates are November 14-16 (with 470 filing assistance on November 17 in the morning). The location is at MCNC in Durham.
  • Those registered will receive a follow up email after registration closes. Please watch for this communication. 
  • After the three-day E-rate Bootcamp, the E-rate Team is offering assistance in creating/filing the Form 470/RFP on Thursday morning, November 17th.  Contact your E-rate Coordinator if you are interested in meeting and would like to set up an appointment. You can attend the 470 assistance by itself, Boot Camp attendance is not required. 
  • We will also be available for individual chats/issues. Virtual options are also available. 

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