Alaska State Library > E-rate

• Find the expiration date for your current technology plan (PDF)
• There is no Technology Plan Form to fill out. There is, however, guidance given. See Alaska Educational Technology Plan guidelines (PDF)
• View EED’s Technology Plan Review Form, which must be submitted with your technology plan (DOC)
• See the Budget Inventory Analysis (BIA form), which must be filed with EED annually (DOC)
• Directions for completing the BIA (PDF)
• USAC guidance for technology planning

Public and private schools and school districts applying for E-Rate discounts for advanced phone and other telecommunications and Internet services must have an educational technology plan certified by the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development (EED) or another USAC recognized approver. The plan must be accompanied by an adopted Internet Safety Policy to meet the requirements of the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA). For more information on CIPA, click on the link to the left of this text. The certifying agency for both private and public Alaska schools, as well as Head Start programs and other Educational Service Agencies is the Technology office of EED. During a program integrity review (PIA), a school may be required to produce a technology plan approval letter from EED prior to approval a funding request.

Schools and libraries are not required to write or develop a separate Universal Service Fund technology plan. However, the approved plan must include a sufficient level of information to validate the purpose of a Universal Service Fund request. To qualify as an approved technology plan for E-rate discounts and to meet the requirements of the FCC a plan must contain the following five elements:

• The plan must establish clear goals and a realistic strategy for using telecommunications and information technology to improve education or library services;
• The plan must have a professional development strategy to ensure that staff know how to use these new technologies to improve education or library services;
• The plan must include an assessment of the telecommunication services, hardware, software, and other services that will be needed to improve education or library services;
• The plan must provide a sufficient budget to acquire and support the non-discounted elements of the plan: the hardware, software, professional development and other services that will be needed to implement the strategy; and
• The plan must include an evaluation process that enables the school or library to monitor progress toward the specified goals and make mid-course corrections in response to new developments and opportunities and they arise.

The Alaska E-rate Coordinator, Valerie Oliver, has no authority over school technology planning approval. That is handled by Alaska Education Technology Director Cecilia Miller, cecilia.miller@alaska.gov, who is the certified technology plan approver for the State of Alaska.

Please contact Cecilia or the Education Technology Program Clerk for all school technology planning issues at:

Cheryl Parks, Educational Technology Clerk
Department of Education & Early Development
801 West Tenth Street, Suite 200
PO Box 110500
Juneau, Alaska 99811-0500
Tech.Plan@alaska.gov

All applicants certify on Forms 470 and 471 that their request for services will be based on a technology plan that has been or will be approved. The annual Budget Inventory Analysis (BIA) must be completed before the submission of the Form 470 and Form 471. The applicant must indicate the status of the technology plan in Block 5 of the Form 470 and Block 6 of the Form 471.

The plan should document an educational purpose consistent with the "Summary Description of Needs or Services Requested" in Block 2 of the Form 470. The approved plan should be consistent with the "Technology Resources" in Block 3 and should support the "Certifications" in Block 5. The approved plan also should be consistent with similar information blocks in Form 471 and should support the "Certifications" in Forms 471 and 486. Applicants must retain documentation to demonstrate fulfillment of such requirements.

To officially accept the funding awarded and to indicate services have begun, the school must file Form 486 and indicate on that form the name(s) of the organization(s) that approved a technology plan for any eligible recipient receiving services. The technology plan has to be approved by the start of service or the filing of the Form 486, whichever comes first.

Building a paper trail

You need to retain these documents for eight years in case of audit or review:

• Technology Plan Approval Letter, with date of approval
• Budget Inventory Analysis, with date indicator
• Internet Safety Policy
• Note of public hearing date where Internet Safety Policy and Technology Plan were discussed