Category Two budget yearly re-calculation, plus changing student counts

Even though Category Two budgets span over five years, your budget is re-calculated every year based on the number of students (for schools) or square footage (for libraries) you have. This especially affects schools with changing student populations.

If the student count goes down,
Your five-year budget will decrease. But, if you spent the whole budget in the first year, you don’t need to return the money you received.

If the student count goes up,
When you update your profile in the E-rate Productivity Center (EPC) with a higher student count, your budget is re-calculated automatically to increase by $150 per additional student. The amount is not pro-rated based on how far along in the 5-year period; it’s a flat $150 added per student.

The same reasoning applies to libraries. If your library increases its square footage, for example if you construct an addition or move into a larger building, when you update the square footage in EPC it will automatically increase your budget by $2.30 per additional square foot (or $5 per square foot for urban libraries); it is not pro-rated.

Tomorrow is our last post about Category Two budgets, where we’ll cover Category Two funding for non-instructional facilities. Remember you can view more information in the Category Two budgets FAQ on our website, or in this webinar recording:

Webinar: Category Two Budgets (25:26)

 

Editor’s note: If you submitted FCC Form 470 on the same day we wrote about it on the blog (March 3), then at this point you’ll be in the 28-day waiting period. During the 28-day period, we’re covering general information about program rules and topics that are important to know about. We’ll begin posting about FCC Form 471, the funding request form, starting the week of April 4.