E-Rate Program

The E-Rate discount program lowers the cost of Internet access, telecommunication services, and network data services for schools and libraries. 

• USAC's Schools and Libraries Division directs the E-rate program.

E-Rate Training & Materials

USAC Training Materials

E-Rate Discounts

E-Rate discounts for all schools are based on their shared, district-wide discount, which is calculated based on the percentage of students eligible for the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) (or other qualifying methods for determining low-income student populations) and the Urban or Rural designation of the schools in the district.
 
OSPI has created a spreadsheet that indicates the enrollment and eligibility data for each school, along with each school's Urban or Rural status, State School Code, and USAC-provided Billed Entity Numbers (BENs). This school-level data is then rolled up to create the district-wide discounts. For each district with more than 50% of their schools listed as Rural, the entire district is considered Rural. All other districts are considered Urban. Once the district-wide eligibility percentage and the Urban/Rural status are determined, OSPI uses the USAC's Discount Matrix to determine the district-wide discount.

OSPI creates a 'Valid File’ annually, that is shared with USAC to use to validate discounts on submitted E-rate applications. To create the official Valid File for the upcoming 2026–27 E-Rate Funding Year, OSPI began with the 2024–25 school year enrollment from the OSPI Report Card to establish enrollments for all schools.  To determine NSLP eligibility, CEP Direct Certification data was used for all CEP-participating schools, and Free and Reduced Program data was used for districts participating in that program.  For districts that do not participate in any NSLP programs, OSPI worked with the districts to determine if an acceptable alternative mechanism could be used, like a survey of families.

The resulting WA E-Rate Valid File was also submitted to USAC for their use when reviewing applications.

You will notice that some schools are listed with 0 students. This does not make them ineligible for E-Rate; it means that the students at those locations are already captured elsewhere in the district, so listing them at these sites would allow them to be double-counted. There is not an issue with listing individual schools in EPC with 0 students, as the district-wide calculations will still be accurate.

As long as the data listed in a district’s E-Rate Productivity Center (EPC) Portal matches the data in the Valid File, there should be no issues during application review. If you receive entity or discount validation questions from USAC, please share them with OSPI so that we can work with USAC to make sure that reviewers are using the current valid file in their reviews.

If you have questions about the Valid File, or anything else related to E-rate, please reach out to Susan Tenkhoff for assistance.
 

District Technology Plans

E-Rate no longer requires a district technology plan for any funding category, and there are no state or federal requirements for districts to have a technology plan. However, if a district would still like to have a state-approved technology plan, that option is still available through OSPI. Interested districts must submit an Intent to File form to OSPI and submit their plan for approval.

Technology Plan Templates

If you did not use the 2019-2022 District Technology Plan Template to develop your district technology plan, use the 2019-2022 District Technology Plan Index to organize the content in your plan.

The district school board must approve your technology plan first and document their approval in a letter.

• District Technology Plan Template for K-12 Schools
• District Technology Plan Index
• Intent to File Form

Send completed forms and board approval to:

ATTN: Bre Urness-Straight, Educational Technology
Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction
PO Box 47200
600 Washington Street SE
Olympia, WA 98504-7200