54.505—Discounts.
(a) Discount mechanism.
Discounts for eligible schools and libraries shall be set as a percentage discount from the pre-discount price.
(b) Discount percentages.
The discounts available to eligible schools and libraries shall range from 20 percent to 90 percent of the pre-discount price for all eligible services provided by eligible providers, as defined in this subpart. The discounts available to a particular school, library, or consortium of only such entities shall be determined by indicators of poverty and high cost.
(1)
For schools and school districts, the level of poverty shall be measured by the percentage of their student enrollment that is eligible for a free or reduced price lunch under the national school lunch program or a federally-approved alternative mechanism. School districts applying for eligible services on behalf of their individual schools may calculate the district-wide percentage of eligible students using a weighted average. For example, a school district would divide the total number of students in the district eligible for the national school lunch program by the total number of students in the district to compute the district-wide percentage of eligible students. Alternatively, the district could apply on behalf of individual schools and use the respective percentage discounts for which the individual schools are eligible.
(2)
For libraries and library consortia, the level of poverty shall be based on the percentage of the student enrollment that is eligible for a free or reduced price lunch under the national school lunch program or a federally-approved alternative mechanism in the public school district in which they are located. If the library is not in a school district then its level of poverty shall be based on an average of the percentage of students eligible for the national school lunch program in each of the school districts that children living in the library's location attend. Library systems applying for discounted services on behalf of their individual branches shall calculate the system-wide percentage of eligible families using an unweighted average based on the percentage of the student enrollment that is eligible for a free or reduced price lunch under the national school lunch program in the public school district in which they are located for each of their branches or facilities.
(3)
The Administrator shall classify schools and libraries as “urban” or “rural” based on location in an urban or rural area, according to the following desigantions.
(i)
Schools and libraries located in metropolitan counties, as measured by the Office of Management and Budget's Metropolitan Statistical Area method, shall be designated as urban, except for those schools and libraries located within metropolitan counties identified by census block or tract in the Goldsmith Modification.
(ii)
Schools and libraries located in non-metropolitan counties, as measured by the Office of Management and Budget's Metropolitan Statistical Area method, shall be designated as rural. Schools and libraries located in rural areas within metropolitan counties identified by census block or tract in the Goldsmith Modification shall also be designated as rural.
(4)
School districts, library systems, or other billed entities shall calculate discounts on supported services described in § 54.502 or other supported special services described in § 54.503 that are shared by two or more of their schools, libraries, or consortia members by calculating an average based on the applicable discounts of all member schools and libraries. School districts, library systems, or other billed entities shall ensure that, for each year in which an eligible school or library is included for purposes of calculating the aggregate discount rate, that eligible school or library shall receive a proportionate share of the shared services for which support is sought. For schools, the average discount shall be a weighted average of the applicable discount of all schools sharing a portion of the shared services, with the weighting based on the number of students in each school. For libraries, the average discount shall be a simple average of the applicable discounts to which the libraries sharing a portion of the shared services are entitled.
(c) Matrix.
The Administrator shall use the following matrix to set a discount rate to be applied to eligible interstate services purchased by eligible schools, school districts, libraries, or library consortia based on the institution's level of poverty and location in an “urban” or “rural” area.
| Schools and Libraries discount matrix | How disadvantaged? | % of students eligible for national school lunch program | Discount level | Urban discount | Rural discount |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| <1 | 20 | 25 | |||
| 1-19 | 40 | 50 | |||
| 20-34 | 50 | 60 | |||
| 35-49 | 60 | 70 | |||
| 50-74 | 80 | 80 | |||
| 75-100 | 90 | 90 |
(e) Interstate and intrastate services.
Federal universal service support for schools and libraries shall be provided for both interstate and intrastate services.
(1)
Federal universal service support under this subpart for eligible schools and libraries in a state is contingent upon the establishment of intrastate discounts no less than the discounts applicable for interstate services.
(2)
A state may, however, secure a temporary waiver of this latter requirement based on unusually compelling conditions.
(f) State support.
Federal universal service discounts shall be based on the price of a service prior to the application of any state provided support for schools or libraries.
[62 FR 32948, June 17, 1997, as amended at 62 FR 41304, Aug. 1, 1997; 63 FR 2130, Jan. 13, 1998; 63 FR 70572, Dec. 21, 1998]