KAREN CREENAN, Executive Director
 | CIPA UPDATE |
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KAREN CREENAN, Executive Director
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Current advice from ALA’s E-Rate Task Force concerning CIPA filtering requirements and E-Rate funding is as follows:
- When applying for E-Rate funds, compliance with CIPA filtering requirements applies only to internal connections and Internet Service Provider costs. CIPA does not apply to telecommunications costs, your dial-up phone connection, T-1 line, or similar data line.
- If you have applied for E-Rate funds for FY4 (July 1, 2001 through June 30, 2002) you do NOT need to filter at any time during this funding year in order to receive the discounts for internal connections or ISP costs, nor will you be retroactively penalized if you decide to forego E-Rate funds for these costs in FY 5. When you submit form 486 in October 2001, you need only certify that you are “undertaking such actions … to comply with the requirements of CIPA” for the following year.
- We are hoping that CIPA will be declared unconstitutional. However, in case it survives the ACLU and ALA legal challenge, you need to plan ahead for FY5 (July 1, 2002 through June 30, 2003) when you must be in full compliance with the CIPA filtering requirements in order to receive E-Rate discounts for ISP costs and internal connections. “Full compliance” means that the library has held public meetings, adopted a policy, and implemented filtering.
Watch for further news. We will keep member libraries up to date regarding CIPA.