Wave 2 of Funding Year 2026 landed on May 7, 2026. If your funding decision wasn’t in it, here’s what that does and doesn’t mean, and what to do while you wait.
Wave 2 committed $28.97 million across 676 funding requests, bringing total FY2026 commitments to $1.04 billion through the first two waves. Wave 2 reached broadly across the country: 46 states had funding requests included, with Florida leading the nation at 60 requests. (Wave 1 committed over $1 billion on its own — read the Wave 1 recap.)
That’s a strong number, but it’s a small slice of what’s still to come. Applicants have filed 58,265 Funding Request Numbers (FRNs) for FY2026, seeking $3.59 billion in discounts. If your request didn’t appear in Wave 1 or Wave 2, it’s still under review, and many more waves are coming.
If your decision hasn’t landed yet, here are three things worth doing this week:
- Log in to your Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) account and confirm your application status. If USAC has reached out with a Program Integrity Assurance (PIA) inquiry, the response clock is ticking. A delayed reply stalls everything that follows.
- Watch your email closely, spam folder included. PIA inquiries often carry tight response windows, and missing one can push your funding decision into a later wave or trigger a denial that could have been avoided.
- Get your invoicing deadlines on the calendar now, before your commitment lands. The moment it does, you’ll want to be ready to move rather than scrambling to figure out what’s next.
Have questions about funding waves or PIA inquiries? Join our next My E-rate Guides (MEG) webinar, a live monthly session where our GuideTeam walks through what applicants need to know right now and answers your questions in real time. Register for the next MEG webinar.
About the Author: Chris is a Guide at Funds For Learning, helping schools and libraries navigate the E-rate process. Before joining FFL, he tutored in Seattle and taught English in Japan for five years. “What drew me to this work is being part of what allows a student in America to access the internet without worrying about cost preventing an equal share in the richness of online education.”
