E-Rate is entering its 11th year, and the government funding program continues to offer K–12 schools discounts on eligible technology services. The program’s success is evident from these statistics from a new report released on 2007 E-Rate Funding Year requests:

• Nearly 23,000 applicants requested $3.8 billion in funding.
• The average applicant made funding requests for 6.1 sites.
• The applicant with the most requests submitted 1,519 site requests.
• More than 11,300 applicants made requests for just a single site each.

Average Requests for Each Service Category

• Average per Applicant $163,995
• Internal Connections $75,684
• Telecommunications Services $60,832
• Internet Access $16,037
• Basic Maintenance $11,443

Online Safety

Nothing seems to change faster than the Internet, and schools that want to protect students while allowing appropriate use are constantly trying to keep up, as these statistics show:

• More than 82% of school administrators and staff polled are very concerned about children being protected while using the Internet.
• 58% of respondents cited criminal acts, such as threatening others or attempting to hack into the school network, as the most common offenses of students.
• 63% of respondents said that the most common offense by teachers is viewing pornographic content.
• While 73% of those polled say parents should be responsible for students’ Internet activities while at home, more than 91% of respondents say that when students bring home school notebook computers, the notebooks should be protected by Web filtering and adhere to the same Internet Acceptable Use Policies that apply in the classroom.
• More than 31% of IT administrators are required to provide detailed Web-use reports to school principals and other administrators on a weekly or monthly basis. Eighty-seven percent need to submit reports on an as-needed basis.