THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2008--The Form 471 Filing Window for FY 2008 will close at 11:59 pm EST on Thursday, February 7, 2008. The filing window opened at noon EST on Wednesday, November 7, 2007 and will be open for 93 days.

JANUARY 28, 2008--Invoicing Deadline for Erate FY 2006 (Program Year 9) non-recurring services IF your funding commitment decision letter was dated prior to March 1, 2007. (Postmark deadline).

JANUARY 28, 2008--Deadline for filing service substitutions and/or SPIN changes for Erate FY 2006-07 (program year 9) non-recurring services IF your funding commitment decision letter was dated prior to March 1, 2007. (Postmark deadline).

Thursday, JANUARY 10, 2008--Last date to File Form 470 for FY 2008-09. The Form 470 (Description of Service Requested and Certification Form) must be posted for 28 days prior to filing the Form 471. The Form 470 can be posted at any time. Remember that the services requested on your Form 470 must reflect those items included in your technology plan. Also, Service Providers may NOT be involved in the preparation of the Form 470, RFP (Request for Proposal) and technology plan. For further details on filing the Form 470 see: http://www.sl.universalservice.org/ContentInc/reference/470filingguidance.asp

NOVEMBER 7, 2007--Form 471 E-Rate Filing Window 2008-09 opened. Forms 471 for E-Rate FY 2008-09 can be submitted starting Wednesday, November 7, 2007. The last date to file a Form 471 will be Thursday, February 7, 2008.

SEPTEMBER-NOVEMBER, 2007--Technology Planning. Prior to filing your Form 470, you must prepare a new plan or update your existing Technology Plan to cover the 2008-09 school year. For further details on technology plan requirements see: http://www.sl.universalservice.org/apply/step2.asp

OCTOBER 29, 2007-- FORM 486 FOR 2007-08 due. The Form 486 must be filed no later than 120 days after the service start date or the funding commitment decision letter date whichever is later. For the 2007-08 program year, the Form 486 must be filed by October 29, 2007 for any services that started on July 1, 2007 as long as your funding letter was dated prior to July 1, 2007. For further details on filing the Form 486 see: http://www.sl.universalservice.org/ContentInc/reference/8form486.asp

OCTOBER 28, 2007-- Deadline for Filing SPIN (Service Provider) change requests and/or service substitutions for recurring, monthly services for FY 2006 (Program Year 9). All SPIN changes and/or service substitutions for recurring services with an expiration date of 6/30/2007 must be postmarked before the deadline for submitting invoices, October 28, 2007.

OCTOBER 26, 2007--Eligible Services List for FY 2008 released.--
FCC released the FY 2008 Eligible services list.
See: 2008 ESL Public Notice
2008 Eligible Services List

OCTOBER 28, 2007--Invoicing Deadline for Erate FY 2006-07 (Program Year 9) recurring monthly services. (Postmark deadline)
In general, the last day to submit a BEAR (billed entity applicant reimbursement form) or SPI (service provider invoice) is 120 days after the last date of service. For most applicants (schools/libraries) the last service date for recurring monthly services during the 2006-2007 funding year was June 30, 2007. Allow adequate time to prepare your reimbursement (BEAR) request and receive service provider approval.

Additionally, check your bills from the 2006-07 funding year and make sure you have received credits on your bills if your service provider (vendor) agreed to discount your bills for you (and bill SLD directly with a service provider invoice). If you do not see credits on your bills, contact your service provider immediately to determine if you need to file BEAR forms.

For our client schools, we will call you for copies of your invoices if we still need them. Also, please make sure you have received credits on your bills if the service provider is supposedly discounting your bills for your Erate discounts.

Once the invoice deadline has passed, the SLD may cancel all remaining FRN funding.

E-RATE FORM 500: CONTRACT EXPIRATION DATES FOR FY 2006(Program Year 9)
SLD provides an automatic extension for non-recurring services to September 30 of the funding year. However, SLD requires that a Form 500 be filed to extend the contract expiration date before they will issue payment on FY 2006 invoices related to non-recurring services installed after 6/30/2007. Example: Your FCDL for non-recurring services is dated 7/2/06. You install your non-recurring services on 8/15/07. SLD will not issue payment on the related invoice until you submit a Form 500 to extend the contract expiration date (the latest allowable date would be 9/30/07).

If your funding commitment decision letter (FCDL) is issued after March 1 of the funding year, SLD provides an additional 1 year extension to September 30 of the following funding year for non-recurring services. For example, your FCDL for FY 2006 is dated AFTER 3/1/2007, you have until 9/30/2008 to install non-recurring services. You would need to file a Form 500 to extend the contract expiration date to 9/30/08.
For further details see:http://www.sl.universalservice.org/data/i500.PDF

E-Rate Form 486 Deadline for FY 2007 (Program Year 10)
If you received your Erate FY 2007 funding letter after July 1, 2007, or your service start dates are after July 1, 2007, your Form 486 deadline will be the later of 120 days past the date of your funding commitment decision letter or 120 days past your service start date.

E-Rate Form 486 -CIPA Compliance Required
You must certify that you are in compliance with CIPA for each funding year. Make sure you have documented your technology protection measure, Internet safety policy, and board meeting agenda/minutes where you discussed your school's compliance with CIPA. For additional information on CIPA see: CIPA Compliance

JULY 1, 2008. Technology Plan Approval for E-Rate FY 2008-09. (Program Year 11)
Technology plans that were completed and/or updated for the 2008-09 funding year must be approved prior to the start of service, July 1, 2008.
Contact your Technology Plan Approver if you have not yet received an approval letter for your technology plan that covers the 2007-08 funding year.

For further details see: http://www.usac.org/sl

If you have any questions about E-Rate, feel free to call your E-Rate professionals, Kellogg & Sovereign ® Consulting, LLC at 580-332-1444.