The FCC recently released the list of recipients selected to participate in the Federal Communications Commission’s three-year, $200 million Schools and Libraries Cybersecurity Pilot Program. The program consists of 707 participants including 645 schools and districts, 50 libraries, 12 consortia of schools and libraries from all 50 states, Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia, and several tribal lands. The participants will receive funding for cybersecurity measures over the course of three years.
They were chosen from a pool of 2,700 applicants representing $3.7 billion in cybersecurity funding requests. The pilot will examine the effect of cybersecurity funding for schools and libraries across four categories: advanced firewalls; endpoint protection; identity protection and authentication; and monitoring, detection, and response.
The amount of funding each entity receives will vary based on its cybersecurity needs. The chosen participants will provide more detailed cybersecurity information to the FCC, seek competitive bids for cybersecurity equipment and services, and report specific data to the FCC.
Newport School District was chosen as 1 of 11 recipients across the state of Arkansas. Other entities included the following:
Fayetteville Public Library, Pine Bluff/ Jefferson County Library, Drew Central School
District, Pine Bluff School District, Camden-Public Schools, North Little Rock School
District, Osceola School District, Jonesboro School District, Nettleton Public School District,
Trumann Public School District