| Schools and Libraries News
Brief
October 16, 2009
TIP OF THE WEEK: If you are filing
an invoice (BEAR Form 472 or SPI Form 474) on paper, be sure ALL
pages of the form are dated April 2007 in the lower right-hand corner.
Better yet, file online. For most applicants and service
providers, the deadline to invoice USAC for FY2008 recurring services
is October 28, 2009.
Commitments for
Funding Years 2009 and 2008
Funding Year
2009. USAC will release FY2009 Wave 24 Funding Commitment
Decision Letters (FCDLs) October 20. This wave includes commitments
for approved Priority 2 requests (Internal Connections and Basic
Maintenance of Internal Connections) at 85% and above. As of October 16,
FY2009 commitments total over $1.11 billion.
Funding Year
2008. USAC will release FY2008 Wave 70 FCDLs October 21.
This wave includes commitments for approved Priority 2 requests at 88% and
above and denials at 86% and below. As of October 16, FY2008 commitments
total just under $2.35 billion.
On the day the FCDLs
are mailed, you can check to see if you have a commitment by using USAC’s
Automated
Search of Commitments tool.
APPLICATION
PROCESS: Technology Planning
The first document
prepared by recipients of service under the E-rate program should be
the technology plan. A technology plan is a written document that
describes the technologies and associated resources, both existing and
planned, that will assist a school to provide educational services or a
library to provide library services.
Technology plans are
required for all discounted services other than basic
telephone service. For example, if you are requesting discounts on a
PBX or a T-1 or DSL line – or if you are applying for any services in the
Internet Access, Internal Connections, or Basic Maintenance of Internal
Connections categories of service – you have more than basic telephone
service and you will need a technology plan.
Here are the basic
requirements of a technology plan:
- It must be created
(written) before the Form 470 is filed.
- It must cover all 12
months of the funding year for which you are applying.
- It must contain all
five required elements (see below).
- It must be approved
by a USAC-certified Technology Plan Approver (TPA) before the Form 486
is filed or services start, whichever is earlier.
- In general, it
cannot cover more than three years.
Let’s look at each of
these requirements in turn.
The technology
plan must be created before the Form 470 is filed.
Your technology plan
must form the basis for the products and services you are seeking on your
Form 470 and the products and services you subsequently order on your
Form 471. The products and services you request on your Form 470 must
therefore be consistent with your technology plan. Your technology plan
should be specific enough to allow you to achieve your goals and
strategies for providing educational or library services, but flexible
enough that you can consider different available technologies to attain
those goals.
Note that the
technology plan written before the Form 470 filing is not necessarily the
final version of your technology plan, nor the version that will
eventually be approved by your TPA. It should, however, be far enough
along in its development that it can reasonably support your requests for
discounted products and/or services. In addition, we recommend that you
document the date that you created your technology plan since this
information may be requested during review of your Form 486. The creation
date is defined as the date your technology plan first contained the five
required elements in sufficient detail to support the products or services
requested on your Form 470.
The technology
plan must cover all 12 months of the funding year.
Services beyond basic
telephone service that are received during the funding year must be
covered by the technology plan. In most cases, services are received
during the entire funding year, so the technology plan must cover the
entire funding year.
If your current
technology plan expires before the end of the funding year for which you
are applying, you must write a new technology plan that covers the
remainder of the funding year. As above, that new technology plan must be
written before the Form 470 is filed and approved before the Form 486 is
filed so that your services for the entire year are covered by approved
technology plans.
The technology
plan must contain the five required elements.
Those elements are:
- goals and strategies
for using telecommunications and information technology;
- a professional
development strategy;
- an assessment of
telecommunications services, hardware, software, and other services
needed;
- budget resources;
and
- an ongoing
evaluation process.
Your technology plan
should address each of these elements at a level of detail appropriate to
the size of your entity. For example, the technology plan for a one-room
rural library with dial-up Internet access would be much shorter and
simpler than the technology plan for a large urban library with 20
branches and high-speed Internet access in all of the branches.
The technology
plan must be approved by a USAC-certified Technology Plan Approver
(TPA).
USAC certifies certain
entities to approve technology plans. In general, state departments of
education and state libraries can approve plans. Other agencies can
approve technology plans for non-public and other entities, such as
diocesan schools or special libraries.
You can access a list
of agencies that are certified to approve technology plans using the Technology
Plan Approver Locator tool in the Search
Tools section of the website. Please keep in mind that you should not
submit your plan to an approver who is not certified by USAC to approve
plans for your state or entity type. If you cannot find an appropriate
approver for your state or entity type, use the email link on the web page
or Submit
a Question (choose Topic Inquiry "Technology Planning" and Specific
Inquiry "I can't find my Tech Plan Approver on your website") to ask USAC
for help in locating an approver.
The technology plan
must be approved before services start. However, because some applicants
are eligible to file a Form 486 early if they meet certain requirements,
the technology plan must be approved before the Form 486 filing if the
Form 486 is filed before services have started.
The technology
plan should not cover more than three years.
New technologies and
services develop and change rapidly. Funding can be reduced or increased.
Staff changes can lead to modifications of organizational goals. For these
and other reasons, technology plans can become out-of-date in a relatively
short period of time. Consequently, with two exceptions, your technology
plan should not cover more than three years.
The exceptions are:
- State five-year
plans required by the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) meet
E-rate requirements for state library agencies applying for discounts.
- School five-year
plans required by the U.S. Department of Education’s Enhancing Education
Through Technology (EETT) program meet E-rate requirements if they are
accompanied by information on the school’s operating budget.
However, we recommend
that technology plans under these exceptions that cover more than three
years be updated after three years.
For more information on
all aspects of technology planning, you can refer to the following
guidance documents:
Develop
a Technology Plan
Technology
Planning
Questions
to Consider in Technology Planning
Frequently
Asked Questions about Technology Planning
Basic
Telephone Service
Tech
Plan Approver Locator tool description
Sample
Technology Plan Approval Letter
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