How To Receive Broadband Funds (E-Rate & State)
Many schools received Funding Commitment Decision Letters from E-Rate this weekend! This newsletter contains information about…
1) How to receive broadband funding for this school year (23-24)
2) What to do after receiving a Funding Commitment (school year 24-25), and…
3) Information about E-Rate for school year 25-26.
Please read all three parts carefully, and please respond if you have any questions or concerns!
1) Final Payments for School Year 23-24
1) Form 470: Competitive Bidding
2) Form 471: Funding Application3) Receive Funding Commitment Decision Letter5) Invoicing: Receive reimbursements or discounts ← Deadlines are approaching!
4) Form 486: CIPA Certification
To receive state reimbursements for school year 2023-24: upload invoices to your school’s unique OneDrive link. You only need to upload invoices dated through May 2024—the amount for June will be estimated and included in the reimbursement.
If you need the link OneDrive link resent, email broadband@edu.idaho.gov.
Please include all pages of the invoice in your submissions.
The deadline to upload invoices for state of Idaho reimbursements is June 15th.
This deadline cannot be extended.
To receive E-Rate reimbursements for school year 2023-24: login to EPC at usac.org, and on the top-right corner click “EPC E-Rate Invoicing.“ On the next page, click “File Form 472/BEAR” to get started. Select Funding Year 2023, then select the correct Funding Request Number (FRN).
The deadline to submit E-Rate reimbursements is 120 days after the last date of service. For Internet service, the last date of service is June 30th, therefore the deadline for most Internet service invoices is October 28th, 2024.
This deadline can be extended if needed.
2) Set Up Benefits for School Year 24-25
1) Form 470: Competitive Bidding2) Form 471: Funding Application
3) Receive Funding Commitment Decision Letter ← We are here…
4 Form 486: CIPA Certification ← And here!
5) Invoicing: Receive reimbursements or discounts ← Begins 7/1/2024
If your recent E-Rate filings have been approved (as many have in the first wave on April 27th), then you have one last step to enable E-Rate discounts/reimbursements for next school year 24-25: Form 486.
To file the Form 486, services or hardware must be both a) funded by E-Rate and b) installed/activated at your school or library.
The due date to file the Form 486 is either 120 days after you receive a funding commitment, or 120 days after service begins (whichever is later).
3) Plan for School Year 2025-26
1) Form 470: Competitive Bidding ← *Complete between 7/1/2024 — February 2025
2) Form 471: Funding Application
3) Receive Funding Commitment Decision Letter
4) Form 486: CIPA Certification
5) Invoicing: Receive reimbursements or discounts
*If your Internet service contract ends 6/30/2025, or if you have new hardware purchases to make for 2025-26 school year, then it may soon be time to plan a competitive bidding process during the first half of the school year.
We strongly suggest planning your timeline so that you’ve awarded your contract between the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays (besides—who really wants to worry about E-Rate business during the Winter holidays?!).
We will be providing additional outreach and resources over the summer to assist schools going through the procurement process.