E-Rate Program Overview
Education Rate, more commonly known as E-Rate, was established by the Telecommunications
Act of 1996 and began monetary distribution in 1998. E-Rate is overseen by the FCC
and is administered by the Schools and Libraries Division (SLD) of the Universal
Service Administration Company (USAC).
The E-Rate program was established in an effort to aid Schools and Libraries in
obtaining affordable Telecommunication and Internet Services by offering a discount
on these services. Funding may be requested in four separate categories of service:
Telecommunications, Internet Access, Internal Connections, and Basic Maintenance
of Internal Connections. The discount percentage for the applicant is based on poverty
and location of the population served by the school or library and ranges from 20%
(no students eligible for free and reduced lunch) to 90% (over 75% of your student
population eligible for free and reduced lunch). For more details on E-Rate discounts
please see the USAC Discount Matrix.
In order to be eligible to receive E-Rate discounts, schools and libraries must
meet certain eligibility criteria. In general, elementary schools, secondary schools,
private schools and religious schools are eligible to receive discounts. Public
Libraries and library systems are also eligible to receive discounts as long as
they meet the eligibility requirements for libraries.
Eligible services of the E-Rate program are broken down into two categories, Priority
1 and Priority 2. Priority 1 services are all Telecommunications services and Internet
Access. Priority 2 services are Internal Connections and Basic Maintenance of Internal
Connections.
Some examples of Priority 1 Services include:
- Local Phone Service
- Long Distance Phone Service
- Cell Phone Service
- T-1
- Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)
- Paging
- E-mail Services
- Cable Modem
- Webhosting
Some examples of Priority 2 Services include:
- Phone Systems
- Servers
- Cabling
- Circuit Cards
- Access Points
- Hubs
- Firewall
- And the maintenance of these eligible products
* This is a short list of some of the services that are eligible under priority
1 and priority 2 services. This does not constitute a full list nor does the inclusion on the above
list guarantee approval. For the full list, and all changes, please see the Eligible Services List.