E-Rate Cat 2 Funding FY2020 FY2021

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued a Report and Order making significant changes to the E-Rate rules for Category Two funding requests.

Below please find a summary of the main points going ahead.

As of 2021, The program is made simpler and schools benefit more:

1. All schools and library budgets will be reset to a new five year plan.
2. A school can submit funding requests in any funding year during a five-year cycle.
3. The Category Two funding floor (Minimum) will be increased from $9,200 per site to $25,000.
4. Per student budget multipliers will increase to $167/student, with a $25,000 minimum for schools with less than 149 students.

You may wonder, what then will happen this year, 2020/21?

1. The FCC extended the five-year period, started in 2015, by one year.
2. Category One: No change, you will be funded according to your discount level.
3. Category Two: Depending on how much of your Category Two five-year budget you have used until 2020/21, you can maximize your access to funding by asking for the money remaining from that budget plus 20% of the budget you were entitled to in the same five-year period. Example: If you are a small school and did not use the minimum $9,200 budget, you can ask for the $9,200 + $1,840 (20% of the allocated budget) as the basis of your discount. On the other hand, if the school used it’s $9,200 budget, it will still have access to a budget of $1,840 for 2020/21.
4. For FY2020 – Eligible Services List remains the same.

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