ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline Volume 10, Number 27 April 5, 2001 In this issue: ALERT: FCC Publishes E-rate Filtering Regulations; Year 4 Discounts Affected The FCC today released the Report and Order (FCC 01-120), and regulations implementing the Children's Internet Protection Act and the Neighborhood Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA and NCIPA) for E- rate discount participants. A preliminary review of the Order indicates that the FCC will require E-rate program participants to comply with CIPA/NCIPA in Year 4. The "Year 4" is defined as the program funding year from July 1, 2001 through June 30, 2002. The application period for those who applied for Year 4 discounts was from November 6, 2000 through January 18, 2001. A preliminary review of the FCC decision suggests that "compliance" appears to mean certifying that filtering and related monitoring requirements are either in place as of October 28, 2001 or steps are being taken to be in place for the following funding year, Year 5. The FCC will require applicants to use FCC Form 486 to certify compliance and the certification must be postmarked by or before October 28, 2001. Form 486 will be consistently used in future years. ALA and many others who participated in the proceeding argued that Year 5 should be the first funding year for implementation pursuant to the law. There are other features including some recommended by ALA to the FCC that appear to have been adopted, including that: * consortia merely need to certify that they have collected CIPA/NCIPA compliance certifications from eligible members; * every E-rate eligible consortia member will have to send a new form, FCC Form 479, to the consortia to certify CIPA/NCIPA compliance; * neither consortia or consortia members will be penalized or held liable for noncompliance by any individual member of the consortia; * first time applicants during any year will be able to certify that they are undertaking measures to come into compliance with CIPA/NCIPA for the following year; * consortia will not be responsible for verifying the accuracy of a member's certification; * CIPA/NCIPA does not apply to libraries and schools that receive E-rate discounts for telecommunications services only; * The FCC will not require certification of the effectiveness technology protection measures; * The local Public Notice and Hearing, the development of the Internet safety policy with community input, and other related requirements of NCIPA must be completed and certification postmarked by or before October 28, 2001. However, the FCC Order allows libraries and schools that have already conducted a local public proceeding for the development of an Internet safety policy that meets NCIPA requirements, to consider themselves in compliance. ALA staff and legal advisors are reviewing the Report and Order and will provide a more thorough review as soon as possible. Key selected highlights of the FCC Report and Order are provided below. The URL for the Report and Order is at: [www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Common_Carrier/Orders/2001/fcc01120.doc] From the Executive Summary: "In this Order, we adopt rules that do the following: . For this funding year, schools and libraries must certify by October 28, 2001 that they have the policies and technology measures in place, or that they are undertaking such actions, including any necessary procurement procedures, to put them in place for the following funding year. Because no school or library may receive services at discount rates during any time period in which it is out of compliance with its certification, as of the time that a school or library begins receiving services in Funding Year 4, it must either have the policies and technology measure in place, or be undertaking necessary actions to put them in place for the next year. Schools and libraries shall make the necessary certifications in FCC Form 486, which is submitted after a decision is made on requests for discounts under the universal service support mechanism." From Section B, Item 12: ".We are not persuaded that Funding Year 5 is the first program funding year following the effective date of the statute. It is well- established in the Commission's rules and in numerous orders that the program "funding year" for the schools and libraries universal service support mechanism starts on July 1, and ends on June 30 of the following year. Although the commenters are correct that the application process begins prior to July 1 of each year, July 1 is the starting date for the funding year because recipients may not receive discounts for services obtained before that date. This conclusion is supported by the instructions to the application form. SLD has published elsewhere that the funding year begins on July 1 of each year." From Section B, Item 15: ".any school or library that receives discounted services between July 1 and October 28, 2001, must be taking actions to comply with CIPA at the time that it actually receives these services, even though the certification is not due until October 28, 2001. Entities that intend to certify that they have not completed all the requirements of CIPA but are undertaking such actions, including necessary procurement procedures, to complete CIPA's requirements for Funding Year 5, may only receive discounts for Funding Year 4 if they are undertaking such actions by the time they begin receiving services." The Washington Office will offer a workshop on CIPA and its effects on libraries at our Saturday Update Session at Annual Conference 2001 in San Francisco. The workshop will touch on E- Rate concerns among other issues. Stay tuned to ALAWON for further details. ****** ALAWON (ISSN 1069-7799) is a free, irregular publication of the American Library Association Washington Office. All materials subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credits. 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