Appeals Guidelines

The Schools and Libraries Division (SLD) of the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) reviews appeals of its decisions in accordance with guidelines established by the Schools and Libraries Programmatic Subcommittee of the USAC Board of Directors. There are four circumstances when appeals can be granted by USAC, assuming there are no other issues identified during review:

1. When the appeal makes clear that the SLD erred in its initial review. If the SLD makes a mistake (for example, denies funding because the request includes 30% or more of ineligible services), and the appeal points out that mistake (demonstrates that all the services were in fact eligible or that the cost of ineligible services was not included in the original request), the SLD will grant the appeal.
   
2. When the appeal makes clear that the applicant made a mistake in information provided in or with the application leading to funding denial and that the SLD could have identified the mistake from information provided with the application. If the applicant made a mistake in completing the Form 471 (for example, put in the wrong contract award date in Block 5) and had provided information to the SLD either with the application or during PIA review (for example, provided a copy of the contract to PIA during review with the award date indicated) and when the appeal points out the mistake (the wrong contract award date) and how the SLD could have seen the mistake (from the contract provided during review), the SLD will grant the appeal.
   
3. When the appeal provides documentation to correct an incorrect SLD assumption made because there was insufficient information in the application file about an issue. In general, PIA will contact the applicant and ask for all information necessary to make decisions about an application. If that contact does not occur, however, and funding is denied based on an incorrect assumption, the SLD will grant an appeal when the appellant points out the incorrect assumption and provides documentation about the issue that is consistent with information originally provided but also successfully resolves the ambiguity in the original file.
   
4. When the SLD obtains policy clarification or new policies between the time of funding commitment and the appeal decision. Over the life of the Schools and Libraries program to date, there have been policy clarifications from the FCC that have changed the way the SLD views some funding requests. For example, remote access routers were viewed as ineligible products because they could be used to access the Internet remotely from ineligible sites. In its November 1999 decision on an appeal from the White Sulphur Springs School District, the FCC ruled that such routers can be eligible if they are not used remotely. The SLD changed its guidance on the web site and granted subsequent appeals that met the conditions for eligibility.

Consistent with these guidelines, the SLD will not accept new information on appeal that is inconsistent with information in the file used during review. If, for example, an incorrect contract award date is entered in Block 5 of the Form 471 resulting in a denial for failure to meet competitive bidding requirements and no other information on the contract award date was provided with the application or to PIA during review, the SLD will not accept a dated copy of the contract provided with the appeal as the basis for granting the appeal.

In each case above, there is a caveat - the SLD will grant the appeal assuming no other issues are identified during review. In order to save administrative time and money, PIA stops its review of a particular funding request once it finds one program rule violation requiring denial. If, on appeal, that basis for funding denial is successfully refuted, the SLD must examine all other aspects of the request to ensure there is not some other program rule violation that requires denial of the request. If another basis for denial is found, the appeal will be denied for a different reason than that originally provided in the Funding Commitment Decision Letter. If a new denial reason is given, the SLD is making a new decision and the appellant would have 60 days from the date of the Administrator's Decision Letter to file a new appeal - either with the SLD or the FCC. For more information on filing appeals, please refer to the Appeals Procedure posted in the Reference Area of this web site.

In general, the SLD reviews appeals on a first-come, first-served basis. Based on an ongoing analysis of the success rate of past appeals, the SLD reserves funds to cover those appeals that may be granted.