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E-Rate and Online Learning Challenges
Deborah Sovereign, CPA, CEMP, Owner of Kellogg & Sovereign Consulting
E-Rate FY2021-22 Category Two (“C2”) budgets will reset at $167 per student for a five-year period beginning July 1, 2021. The budget cap is calculated district-wide so you can allocate the funding among school sites as you see fit. The minimum budget has increased to $25,000. For those of you who are working with the challenges of supporting online learning, you may need to upgrade your bandwidth immediately and plan for upgrading your firewall this spring. Firewalls fall under E-Rate C2 funding and can be purchased as early as April 1, 2021 for E-Rate FY2021-22.
Student Counts
Existing Contract Allows Upgrades – Yes If your existing contract is multi-year and allows for upgrades, you can upgrade bandwidth with your existing provider, request support for the incremental cost from OUSF through December 31, 2020, and then file E-Rate support on the higher bandwidth beginning July 1, 2021.
Both E-Rate and OUSF will support bandwidth levels recommended by SETDA. • WAN bandwidth recommendation is 10 Gbps per 1000 users. Internet Bandwidth • Small District - 4.3 Mbps / Student • Medium District - 3 Mbps / Student • Large District - 2 Mbps / Student
Existing Contract Allows Upgrades – No Contact service providers to find out your upgrade options. You can make temporary arrangements to upgrade immediately. Competitively bid as soon as possible following E-Rate and OUSF guidelines for the increased bandwidth, and then file for E-Rate support on the new services for FY2021-22.
* Several organizations have petitioned the FCC to request a waiver of the E-Rate competitive bidding rules to allow schools and libraries to upgrade during the COVID pandemic. However, as of this writing, the FCC has not yet approved any waivers. You can voice your support by submitting comments to the FCC here: https://www.kelloggllc. com/docs/fcc/fcc_ecfs_howto.pdf
For E-Rate FY2020-21, file a service substitution for the upgraded service. In general, there is no support for the incremental cost from E-Rate until July 1, 2021. *
** The Oklahoma Corporation Commission may provide support for bandwidth increases in response to COVID-19 through December 31, 2020. Upgrades are reviewed for reasonableness and evidence supporting the need for additional bandwidth. Find more information at: http://www. occeweb.com/PU/OUSF/OUSF.htm
If the upgrade is in response to COVID-19, incremental costs may be eligible for support from OUSF through December 31, 2020. ** Keep in mind that there is no E-Rate support for the incremental cost until July 1, 2021.*
E-Rate and OUSF for Emergency Bandwidth Increases
