The FY2016 Form 471 Filing Window has just been announced as follows: *the FY2016 Form 471 filing window will open on February 3 at noon** and close April 29 at 11:59:59 EDT* If you only intend to participate in E-Rate through inclusion on Networkmaine consortium E-Rate applications and do not intend to file your own E-Rate applications for FY2016, you may disregard the following message. Networkmaine will contact its members to complete enrollment. If you do intend to file for E-Rate for FY2016, you are by now no doubt aware that there are new systems in place for FY2016 processes. - All FY2016 E-Rate filing (and beyond) will happen within USAC's new *EPC portal*. - Independent Schools, School Districts, and Libraries who wish to file for E-Rate will utilize an *EPC account *for the organization's Billed Entity. School districts will have a single portal account that includes each of their member schools and non-instructional facilities. - The *Account Administrator *must be established for the Billed Entity. If this has not yet happened, contact USAC's Client Services Bureau at 1-888-203-8100 as soon as possible. The Account Administrator must set up their login before they can use EPC. - The *FY2016 Form 470 *can be filed now in the portal account for the Billed Entity. Remember that a Form 470 must be posted for at least 28 days before you can select a service provider and then file a Form 471. Therefore the last day to file a Form 470 is April 1, but do not wait until then. Start early to avoid a time crunch. - The *FY2016 Form 471 *will be open from 12 noon on February 3, 2016 until 11:59:59 EDT on April 29, 2016. - The Form 471 will pull information from various locations of the portal account. You can add and update this information as you create the form, but it will be much easier to do so before beginning your form so you don't have to jump in and out of the form creation process. - One of the items that the Form 471 will pull is the *NSLP data *for schools. You can update this data now for FY2016 in your organization's profile in EPC. To expedite PIA reviews, use the 2015-2016 free and reduced lunch data you reported to the Department of Education. If you are not sure what these numbers are, check with me. EPC training materials are available at: *http://networkmaine.net/erate/EPC/EPC.htm <http://networkmaine.net/erate/EPC/EPC.htm>* You may also want to check out USAC's EPC guides and videos at: *http://www.usac.org/sl/tools/e-rate-productivity-center/default.aspx <http://www.usac.org/sl/tools/e-rate-productivity-center/default.aspx>* I will continue to provide you with information and training materials as features roll-out in EPC. _____________________________________________ *Anne Perloff* Maine State E-Rate Coordinator for Schools Networkmaine ... a unit of the University of Maine System Web: www.networkmaine.net/erate/ Email: [log in to unmask] Phone: 207-561-3584 Fax: 207-561-3531 Mail: Networkmaine 5752 Neville Hall Rm 244 University of Maine Orono, ME 04469