Overview of E-Rate process

E-rate is a federal program funded by the Universal Service fees that appear on everyone’s phone bills. Schools can get 20% to 90% discounts on phone and Internet bills, depending on the poverty level of their students, as determined by the Free/Reduced Hot Lunch guidelines. Phone and Internet discounts are funded before other discounts, so if you meet the requirements and file correctly you are reasonably sure to receive money. Following is an overview of the requirements. More information can be found at changes to the program occurred in Dec. 2010 – see for details. Revised online forms are available for application after Jan. 11, 2011.

  • Determine if your phone service and Internet service providers are listed with the E-rate program and have SPIN numbers - ATT is a provider. For most Illinois Century Network Internet service users, you list ATT because that’s who you pay.
  • You need to meet deadlines exactly. If it’s the first time you are filing, you likely don’t have an electronic signature so you will need to allow a couple days for mailing the signature pages. Also keep in mind that the best way to file is online and that the website is often overloaded around the deadlines. Deadlines can be found at but the important ones for 2011-2012 are Form 470, which is essentially an “intent to participate” must be filed by Feb. 24, 2011 and Form 471, which is the main application form is due by Mar. 24, 2011. Form 471 must be filed at least 28 days after 470. Form 486 is filed after you are approved for funding to acknowledge that you are receiving the services you applied for. Form 472 is the re-imbursement form to actually get your refund. What you applying for during the Nov – Mar timeframe are bills you will incur from July 1, 2011 to June 30, 2012.
  • Basic phone bill discounts do NOT require a tech plan. As of Dec. 2010, Internet service discounts NO LONGER require an approved tech plan, but do still require that you have filtering in place.
  • The percentage of discount is 20% if you have no students at poverty level (urban areas), 40% if you have at least 1% to 19%. See for the entire list. If you already participate in the Free/Reduced Hot Lunch program, you can use those numbers for students in K-12 (exclude preschool). If not, you can do a survey to determine poverty level. Or if you have documentation from families who receive grants from the school, you can use that information as long as you use the cutoff points for Free/Reduced Hot Lunch.
  • The phone bill discount is only for the school’s portion of the phone bill if you share phone service with your church. You can determine the school’s share by counting the number of phones in church and school, number of staff or some other reasonable method of splitting the service.
  • Form 470 is general. You should include any service that you might want to apply for. If you have a contract for internet service, form 470 needs to be filed BEFORE the contract is signed.
  • Form 471 is very specific. Be very precise and read instructions carefully. When listing your monthly phone bill, choose a relatively large one so if bills increase you have approval for the amount. For multi-year contracts, reference the form 470 filed the year the contract was signed.
  • The tech plan (if you are applying for Priority 2 services) needs to be approved by June 30 and before you file form 486. The guidelines and template for tech plans are available under Resources on Phyllis Helmke () can approve tech plans. If everything passes on the first submission of the tech plan, you will receive approval in about a week. If revisions are needed, you will need to allow more time.

Most if not all schools need to take advantage of whatever financial resources are available. While Erate is a complex system and the application process takes time, it is another source of funds for schools.

Erate Overview.doc

Last Revised 12/8/2010