| Schools and Libraries News Brief
February 27, 2009
TIP OF THE WEEK: Although you can submit RAL corrections through Submit a Question or by mail, we prefer that you fax them to (973) 599-6526. However, if PIA has already contacted you, submit your RAL corrections directly to your PIA reviewer using the reviewer's contact information on the PIA fax/email.
Commitments for Funding Year 2008
Funding Year 2008. USAC will release FY2008 Wave 40 Funding Commitment Decision Letters (FCDLs) March 4 and Wave 41 FCDLs March 3. These waves will include commitments for approved Internal Connections and Basic Maintenance requests at 88% and above and denials at 86% and below. As of February 27, FY2008 commitments total over $2.01 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.
"471 No Cert" Letters To Be Issued Next Week
On March 3, USAC will issue approximately 600 letters to applicants that submitted an FY2009 Form 471 online before the close of the window but neglected to certify the form. This letter, titled "Notification of Form 471 With No Certification," gives applicants until March 23, 2009 to certify their timely filed forms and be considered in-window.
If you receive this letter, you should take the following steps:
First, check the status of your Form 471 online. To check the status of all Forms 471 you submitted for FY2009, go to the Search Tools menu on the Schools and Libraries main page, select the Form 471 Application Status tool, enter your Billed Entity Number, and choose the 2009 Funding Year. You will then be able to view a table that shows the status of your forms. Below is a list of the form statuses for FY2009 Forms 471 you are likely to see at this point in time:
- Certified - In Window: We have successfully processed either your timely filed paper Form 471 or your timely certified online Form 471. If you certified your form on paper it is likely that your certification and our letter crossed in the mail.
- Certified - Out of Window: You either certified your form online or on paper after the window closed or you postmarked a paper form after the window closed. In the first case, your form can still be considered in-window if it was submitted before the window closed (see below); in the second case, your form is considered outside the window.
- Complete: Your form has been submitted online but not yet certified. If you submitted your form online before the close of the window, you now have an opportunity to certify your form on paper and have it considered in-window.
- Incomplete: You started a form online but did not submit it, or we have started but not completed data entry of your paper form. In the first case, your form cannot be considered in-window; in the second case, your form can be considered in-window if it was postmarked before the window closed.
- Canceled: You requested that we cancel your form.
Second, take the appropriate action based on your situation.
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If the status of your form is "Complete" but you have already mailed in a paper certification, call the Client Service Bureau (CSB) at 1-888-203-8100 to find out if we have received your certification. CSB is still processing paper certifications and may be attempting to reach you to add or correct entries on your certification so that it can be successfully data entered.
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If the status of your form is "Complete" and you have NOT certified your form online or mailed in a paper certification, certify your form as soon as possible but no later than March 23, 2009. After you certify online or CSB has successfully processed your paper certification, the status of your form should change to "Certified - Out of Window" (see below). NOTE: If you choose to certify on paper, we recommend that you go to the Apply Online page, choose "Certify Complete" from the Form 471 column, and follow the steps for "Paper Certification."
- If the status of your form is "Certified - Out of Window," your form is in one of three possible situations. You do not need to take action but you can call CSB to ascertain which situation applies to your form.
- Situation 1. You submitted your form online before the window closed and certified it after the window closed. Your form can still be considered in-window. After USAC successfully data enters all paper certifications postmarked on or before March 23, USAC will identify all forms that were timely submitted and certified online or on paper on or before March 23 and move them in-window.
- Situation 2. You submitted your form online after the window closed and then certified it online or on paper. Your form is considered out-of-window. USAC will issue an out-of-window letter after all the changes to in-window status have been processed.
- Situation 3. You postmarked a paper form after the window closed. Your form is considered out-of-window. CSB will data enter enough of the data in Block 1 and Block 5 to ensure that USAC can issue you an out-of-window letter.
Third, watch for the announcement that USAC has moved in-window all Forms 471 that were designated out-of-window but that successfully qualified for a change to in-window status. If your form is showing a status other than "Certified - In Window" after that date, check with CSB so that we can verify that your form is in the correct status. Once all of the forms considered in-window have been identified and their statuses updated, USAC will begin verifying the status of forms that still show as out-of-window so that out-of-window letters can be issued.
Problem Resolution on Paper Forms and Certifications
While most applicants now submit and certify program forms online, USAC still receives a number of paper forms and form certifications. USAC must successfully data enter these forms and certifications before Program Integrity Assurance (PIA) review can begin.
About half of the forms and certifications we receive cannot be data entered without first going through problem resolution. Problem resolution identifies all of the fields or other entries that must be provided or corrected to complete data entry of the form. The most common problems we encounter are:
- Missing entries - for example, the signature line is blank.
- Incorrect entries - for example, the Form 471 application number on a paper certification does not match an existing Form 471 for that funding year.
- Inconsistent entries - for example, a service in a funding request is identified as month-to-month but a contract expiration date is provided.
- Entries that differ from existing entries - for example, a certification box was checked when a form was filed online but the same box on the paper certification is not checked.
If problem resolution is necessary, CSB will reach out to the applicant by following the procedure described in the document Deadline for Information Requests. The applicant's contact person should monitor the preferred mode of contact supplied on the form, as CSB will use that information first.
Once CSB has made a successful contact, the applicant has 15 days to supply any missing or incorrect information. If USAC does not receive a response – or receives only a partial response – within that 15-day period, USAC may be unable to completely data enter the form or certification. This can result in modification, rejection, or denial of individual funding requests, the certification, or the entire form.
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