Good afternoon folks!

Now that the FCC Form 471 deadline is over, we are in the official review phase for E-Rate FY2021. You can find further details below from the NewsBrief for an overview of the PIA (Program Integrity Assurance) review process:

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Program Integrity Assurance (PIA) is the process USAC uses to review applications for compliance with program rules and policies. During this process, USAC reviews the information on your FCC Form 471 and may contact you with additional questions on specific items.

Following is a summary of the Initial Review, Final Review, and Quality Assurance steps in PIA review.

Initial Review

USAC assigns an initial reviewer to process your FCC Form 471. The information you provided on your form may be sufficient for the initial reviewer to complete your review. If not, the initial reviewer prepares the questions that USAC must ask based on the information you provided (or did not provide) on your application.

The initial reviewer issues questions to you via EPC. You will receive an email when the questions are available. If you are a public school or library, we also notify your state E-Rate coordinator.

You can click the link provided in the email to access our questions. You can also navigate to the Pending Inquiries section of your organization's landing page in EPC and, using the drop-down menus, choose "FCC Form 471" for the Type and "2021" for the Funding Year.
Read each question carefully. The inquiry may require you to provide a Yes/No answer, a short response in a text field, or a file or scanned document.
Only one user can work on a specific inquiry at one time, although different users can work on different inquiries simultaneously. One user can allow another user to review and/or edit their work by saving a draft response and then exiting the inquiry.

Please respond promptly to any PIA requests for information or documentation. Reviewers will continue their attempts to contact applicants to ensure that they are available to respond to inquiries.

During the PIA review process, you always have the following options:

If you do not understand one or more questions, you can ask your initial reviewer what the question means or what information USAC expects in your response.
You can ask for more time to respond. However, note that your initial reviewer may not be able to return to your application quickly once you provide the information.
You can ask to speak to a manager if you are having trouble communicating with your initial reviewer. USAC will not penalize you for doing so, and the manager can help you understand the questions USAC is asking and the responses USAC expects to receive.

If we intend to modify or deny a funding request, your initial reviewer will notify you through EPC. You can provide additional information at this point, but you must respond quickly because we do not stop the review process to wait for a response.

Final Review and Quality Assurance

Final Review is a peer review of the work done during Initial Review. The final reviewer checks each step of the Initial Review process to verify that they followed the correct procedures, asked the appropriate questions, and received complete answers. If the final reviewer has any concerns, they will return the application to the initial reviewer for follow-up.

As a result, your initial reviewer may contact you with additional questions to gather the required information that they did not request or receive during Initial Review. Make sure you understand the supplemental information requested and that you respond as quickly and accurately as possible.

Some applications go through a third level of review called Quality Assurance (QA). QA is an additional check to verify the reviewers correctly completed all parts of the application review. As with Final Review, the QA reviewer may return applications to the initial reviewer for follow-up.

The review process is not linear. If a QA reviewer returns an application to an initial reviewer, the status on the progress bar at the top of your FCC Form 471 may move to the left – that is, to an earlier review status. If you do see such a movement, monitor your email in case an initial reviewer attempts to contact you.

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What’s next?

The FCDL

After the PIA review process, USAC will issue your FCDL (funding commitment decision letter), which lets you know how much USAC is going to fund you for the fiscal year. You can find this decision letter by logging into your EPC profile and (from your applicant landing page), scroll down to the middle of the page where it shows “Notifications.” Using the drop-down menu, select “Funding Commitment Decision Letter” and make sure that the “all” status is selected. Using the next drop-down menu beneath for “funding year”, select “2021” for the upcoming FY2021-2022.

When it’s ready, you’re FCDL will appear in a box below the notifications screen. You can access it by clicking on the “View Notification” link.

FCC Form 486

After you receive your FCDL, you can start preparations to begin receiving your services. You should talk with your service provider about receiving services and also how you will be invoicing for those services; by requesting reimbursements with the BEAR form (FCC Form 472) OR using the SPI method (where your service provider applies discounts to your bill).

Once your services have started, you can file the FCC Form 486 in the EPC portal. The deadline for the 486 is 120 days after your service start date or the date your FCDL is issued, whichever is later. For most of you, the service start date will be July 1^st, and so your deadline would be October 29^th.

I’ve also attached a helpful flowchart of the whole process.

All the best,

Liz

Liz Thigpen Schreck, Director

Ocoee River Regional Library

State E-rate Coordinator for Public Libraries

Office of Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett

718 George St., NW, Athens, TN 37303

Phone (423) 745-5194 – office; (423) 649-1583 - direct

Regional Toll Free - (855) 692-8186

Fax (423) 649-1501

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