2024 UCF Technology eRate Presentation

February 2024 Work Session

UCF Technology

eRate Presentation

What is

eRate

Topics Covered

eRate

History of

Funding of

eRate

How we use

eRate

Future of

eRate

What iseRate

A program created by the Federal Government in 1996 to provide discounts of up to 90 percent to help eligible schools and libraries in the United States obtain affordable telecommunications and internet access.

History of eRate

1996 - 2014

eRate is known as Education Rate

In 1996 Congress passed legislation to create the eRate program

Developed to provide schools affordable telephone and internet access

In 1996 only 14% of all private and public K-12 schools had internet access

The vast majority of those 14% had dialup internet

Purpose was to make telephone and internet costs affordable to get all schools connected

- Known as Category 1 Funding- Program Cap was set to 2.25 billion dollars

-Wireless Access Points-UPS

History of eRate

2014 - present

eRate is known as Education Rate

eRate introduced Category 2 Funding which covered internet connections

- Network Switches- Firewalls

Dropped the voice services in Category 1 and only kept the internet services and internal connections

- Internet Broaband- Lit and Dark Fiber Services

Funding cap grew from $2.25 billion dollars to $4.4 billion dollars

- Adjustments made it possible for all to receive funding- In 2023 only $2.5 billion dollars was distributed

- 74% of school districts are meeting the FCC bandwidth goal of 1 Mbps per student

- 35,400 applications were processed in 2022

History of eRate con't

2014 - present

eRate is known as Education Rate

Out of the ~128,000 public and private K-12 school districts - ~45,000 of them used eRate in 2014

In 2014 Internet costs fell from $22/MB to $7/MB to now around $3/MB

In 2014 ~50% of K-12 school districts were connected to the internet. Today nearly all are connected

Funding ofeRate

Funding ofeRate

Not a government grant

Funding comes from the Federal Universal Service Fee

- Landlines- Cell Phones

Discounts are based on the National School Lunch Program

- Discounts range from 20% to 90%- UCFSD discount is set to 50%

Funding is set to $167.00 per student over a five year period

- UCFSD has ~4,000 students = $668,000 over the five year period- Average ~$95,000 of yearly reimbursement

How UCFSD useseRate

2022-23 School Year Funding Received:$89,497.83

- Internet Broaband- Lit and Dark Fiber Services

-Wireless Access Points-UPS

- Network Switches- Firewalls

UCFSD use of eRate

Fund Network Equipment under Cat 2 Funding

Fund Internet and Internal Connection under Cat 1 Funding

Future ofeRate

2026 eRate New Contract

Future of eRate 2026-

• Next Funding Period is set for 2026-2030

• Open period for public comment closed on 2/13/2023

• Emphasis on Cybersecurity help

• During 2025 we will know what is items will be added and dropped

2024 eRate Process

2024 eRate Timeline

Feb. 2024

eRate Bidding Process underway

Feb. 2024

Educate Board on eRate

March 2024

Bids closes and evaluation process begins

March 2024

Board Presentation and Vote for eRate Approval

April 2024

Submit all approval paperwork to USAC (eRate)