Schools and Libraries News Brief

Commitments for Funding Years 2008 and 2007

Funding Year 2008. USAC will release FY2008 Wave 45 Funding Commitment Decision Letters (FCDLs) March 31. This wave will include commitments for approved Internal Connections and Basic Maintenance requests at 88% and above and denials at 86% and below. As of March 27, FY2008 commitments total over $2.19 billion.

Funding Year 2007. As of March 27, FY2007 commitments total just under $2.5 billion.

On the day the FCDLs are mailed, you can check to see if you have a commitment by using USAC’s Automated Search of Commitments tool.

Using the Form 471 Application Status Tool

If you want to know the status of your FY2009 Form 471, you can look it up using the Form 471 Application Status Tool. This tool provides real-time information on the status of Forms 471 filed for a specific Billed Entity and funding year.

To use this tool, you must enter a Billed Entity Number (BEN), choose a funding year, and click "Search." The first screen you see gives you general information about the results of your search. If you click "Continue" at the bottom of the page, you will then see the following information for every Form 471 filed for the BEN and funding year you entered:

• Form 471 Application Number (assigned by USAC)
• Applicant Form Identifier (created by the Billed Entity)
• Application Status

Below the list of search results is an Application Status Explanation table that provides information on each of the statuses that can be assigned to a Form 471.

Certified Forms 471 – that is, Forms 471 filed online and certified online, filed online and certified on paper, or filed on paper – generally begin with one of two statuses: Certified - In Window or Certified - Out of Window.

• Note that the status of some out-of-window Forms 471 will be changed to Certified - In Window in the near future. For FY2009, these include Forms 471 submitted online on or before 11:59 p.m. on February 12, 2009 and then certified either online or on paper after the filing window closed but on or before March 23, 2009.
• Forms 471 that were completed online or postmarked after the close of the filing window will remain in an out-of-window status.

Forms 471 in a Certified - In Window status remain in that status until they are assigned to an initial reviewer to begin the Program Integrity Assurance (PIA) review process. Once the Form 471 has been assigned to an initial reviewer, its status changes to Initial Review.

Your initial reviewer may have questions about your application or may be unable to locate your Item 21 attachment. If so, he or she will attempt to contact you using the preferred mode of contact you indicated in Item 6 of the Form 471. (If your preferred mode of contact is telephone, the initial reviewer will call you and ask you for a fax number or email address in order to send you written questions and/or requests for information.)

After the Initial Review of an application is complete and the reviewer has made a funding decision, the status of the application changes to Available for Final Review. As above, once the application has been assigned to a final reviewer, the status changes to Final Review.

The final reviewer reviews the work of the initial reviewer. If the final reviewer discovers a problem – such as a procedure that was not correctly followed – he or she returns the application to the initial reviewer for additional work. If this happens, the status of the form will change back to Initial Review and the initial reviewer may contact you again.

After the final reviewer is satisfied that all procedures have been properly followed and the decision of the initial reviewer is correct, the application may be subject to additional quality checks (Quality Assurance 1 or Quality Assurance 2). As above, if a problem is identified, the form will return to Initial Review status for resolution.

Once the review process is complete, USAC can make decisions on funding requests. After USAC issues an FCDL, the status of the Form 471 changes to FCDL Issued - 'xx/xx/xxxx' where the x's are replaced by the date the FCDL was issued. Note that if some individual funding requests on the application are in an "As Yet Unfunded" or "Under Review" status, one or more subsequent FCDLs may be issued until USAC has communicated a funding decision on all the funding requests on the application. If USAC issues more than one FCDL, the date featured on the Form 471 status will be the date of the latest FCDL.

Some applications may be held or deferred. The following statuses indicate that review of an application has been temporarily suspended:

• Unable to Contact: USAC has attempted to reach the contact person using the information available on the form and in our database and has been unable to do so. If your application is in this status, you should contact your initial reviewer. If you don't know who your initial reviewer is or are unable to locate his or her contact information, call the Client Service Bureau (CSB) at 1-888-203-8100 for assistance.
• Deferred: USAC has been unsuccessful in contacting you during the summer or winter periods when extended holiday and break schedules occur or – during one of those periods – you asked us to defer our review. (For more information on these summer and winter periods, successful contacts, and response deadlines, refer to the Reference Area document Deadline for Information Requests.) If you feel you should not be in this status, contact your initial reviewer or CSB as described above.
• Awaiting Applicant Documentation: USAC has requested information or documentation from you but does not yet have your response. Contact your initial reviewer if you have any questions.
• Held for further review and other verification: USAC needs to collect additional information and/or verify information already provided before a funding decision can be made. In some cases this can happen quickly; in others, the additional work will take some time.

Note that USAC will not review applications that have the following statuses:

• Canceled: In general, a form in Canceled status was canceled in consultation with the Billed Entity.
• Incomplete: A form in Incomplete status is either a paper form for which data entry has not been completed or an online form for which the "Submit" button has not yet been pushed. USAC will not review forms in an Incomplete status.
• Certified - Out of Window: A form in Certified - Out of Window status was filed after the filing window closed or certified after the extended certification deadline or both. It will only be considered for funding after all Certified - In Window forms have been considered.  Except for FY1999, funding has been insufficient to consider funding requests on out-of-window forms.