Microsoft School Agreement Program

What is the School Agreement program?

The Microsoft School Agreement is a subscription licensing program for K-12 schools and districts. School Agreement can meet your technology needs without breaking your budget. It is a simple and quick way to get quality licensed software product for your faculty, staff, and students. For more detailed information, please call your experienced Software Express Sales Representative.

How does the School Agreement program work?

It's easy. You just count the number of eligible PCs you have. (See the "What is an eligible PC?" question below for a definition of an eligible PC.) Then choose the application, system, and Client Access License (CAL) products you want to license. You can also individually license server products.

Your school can run the licensed software during your one-year or three-year licensed period. You're licensed for all software upgrades and downgrades during the licensed period. If you have a one-year subscription, your school can extend the temporary licenses each year with an extension order.

If you have a three-year subscription, your school submits an anniversary order at the end of year one and year two. At the end of year three, you can start a new subscription with a new subscription enrollment.

If you choose not to extend your subscription, you can either convert your temporary licenses to perpetual licenses through the Buy-out option or remove the software from your desktop PCs.

What products can I get through School Agreement? With School Agreement, you can license the most current versions of any available Microsoft products. Please refer to the Microsoft Volume Licensing Product List to see these products. You can even choose as many products as you like. (Minimum order requirements apply.)

Can I add products during my licensed period? Yes. Under School Agreement version 3.5, you can add products to your coverage during the licensed period by ordering them from your reseller. The licensed period for your additional products expires when your existing subscription enrollment expires. Also under School Agreement 3.5, when you order a new product, you will be charged a pro-rated price based on the number of months remaining in your annual term, with a minimum six-month rate. So if you add a licensed product at month three, you will pay for nine months (.75 x the annual price). If you order the new product at month nine, you will pay for six months (.5 x the annual price).

What is the pricing for School Agreement? Pricing for some School Agreement application and system products is tiered and depends on how many eligible PCs you have. Server products are priced individually. For exact pricing, please contact an Authorized Education Reseller (AER).

What is an eligible PC?

Eligible desktop PCs include: 100 percent of academic institution owned or leased Pentium III, iMac G3, or equivalent or better PCs. If you run the software on other desktop PCs in your institution (such as Pentium II desktop PCs), you must also include those desktop PCs in your eligible PC count.

Example: If you have 200 Pentium III PCs and 200 iMac G3s, you must include all 400 of those PCs in your eligible PC count. If you also have 400 older PCs, but you run the software only on 150 of the older desktop PCs, you must add those 150 desktop PCs to your eligible PC count. This brings your total eligible desktop PC count to 550.

Is there a minimum requirement to participate in School Agreement? Yes. Your first order under a School subscription enrollment must be for a minimum of 300 units. You determine your total units per order by combining your application, system, and CAL units with your server units. You can choose any individual product or combination of products to meet this requirement.

Can I have a subscription for servers only? Yes, if your order meets the 300-unit minimum requirement.

Do I have to license the entire school district? No. You can either license the entire district or an individual school(s). If you decide to license just an individual school, you need to reach the 300-unit minimum. To do this, you can combine schools to reach this minimum. But you cannot count Student Option acquires toward the 300-unit minimum.

What if my eligible PC count increases or decreases during my licensed period? If your eligible PC count increases during your licensed period, all new PCs are automatically licensed at no additional charge. If your eligible PC count decreases during the term, you will not receive a refund. Include your new PCs in your updated eligible count when you submit your next annual order. Note that if you have the three-year subscription, your eligible PC count cannot decrease for years two and three below the year one amount.

How does the Student Option work? Your School Agreement subscription coverage licenses students to use the desktop PCs at your school, such as on classroom and lab desktop PCs. You can also license your students for selected licensed products to use at home by including the Student Option. With this option, you license a set number of students to use selected licensed products on their personal desktop PCs or school-owned desktop PCs for students' exclusive use (for example, a laptop checked out to a student for the school year).

Is there a minimum requirement for the Student Option? Yes. The minimum requirement is 300 units, and you calculate your total units for students the same way you do for your faculty and staff. See the Student Options tab on this page for more information on counting units.

Do I have to license the same products for my students, faculty, and staff? No. You may choose any of the School Agreement application, system, or CAL products for your students. The licensed products you select do not have to match your faculty and staff selections.

Can I have a subscription for students only? Yes. Under School Agreement 3.5, you can license students only using the Student Option without a corresponding faculty and staff enrollment. Your student order must meet the 300-unit minimum requirement.

If I want to license my students, can I combine my faculty and staff and student acquisitions to reach the 300-unit minimum? No. You cannot combine your institution and student acquisitions to meet the 300-unit minimum. Both minimums must be met individually.

How can I license my students who use Macintosh desktop PCs? When you order your student CDs, simply tell your reseller how many Windows and Mac users you have. Student CDs for Microsoft Office for Mac editions are available.

Can schools charge the cost of the School Agreement Student Option to the students? Yes. To recover costs, a school can charge the cost to students (at any price you determine). This is completely up to your school's discretion. Some institutions include this cost as part of the student technology fee.

Can my school enter into a faculty and staff subscription and then later add the Student Option? Yes. Under School Agreement 3.5, your institution can add the Student Option separately from the faculty and staff School subscription.

How can my institution easily distribute licensed products to students?

Schools or districts that acquire the Student Option using the School Agreement can distribute licensed products to students in four easy ways:

You can acquire a license and distribute one copy of each applicable CD-ROM or disk set to each authorized user. Note: You must acquire these CDs or disk sets (known as student media) from your reseller and you cannot duplicate media for students. Get details about ordering and distributing student CDs.
You can allow controlled download from your secure network server(s) or other storage device(s) using Volume Licensing media (such as Starter Kit media) that you licensed and installed on your institution's desktop PCs.
You can manually install licensed products on your users' desktop PCs at a central location that you control using Volume Licensing media.
You can control short-term checkout for applicable Volume Licensing media just for individual users to install. This option is available only for products that do not require a Volume Licensing Key (VLK) (products that do not include Microsoft Product Activation). You cannot distribute VLKs to students. Get more information about VLKs and Microsoft Product Activation.
Note: You must acquire all installation media from a Microsoft-approved fulfillment source.

When students graduate, can they legally keep the software on their own desktop PCs? No. Student licenses are temporary and expire at the end of the licensed period or when a student is not enrolled at the school. Schools are required to inform students of the requirement to remove the software once the license expires.
Can I get perpetual licenses for my departing students? Yes. Instead of removing the software, you can convert temporary student licenses to perpetual licenses using the Buy-out option. You need to buy a minimum of 10 licenses for each product that you want to buy out for your students. If you choose this option, you must issue the perpetual licenses only to students covered under the Student Option. You cannot use the licenses for a different student or group of students.
Are consortia organizations eligible to participate in the School Agreement program? Consortia organizations require special approval by Microsoft to participate. This primarily helps ensure that these organizations are prepared to give their members the necessary information regarding the terms and conditions of their agreement.
Can the faculty and staff use the software at home?
Yes. For no additional license cost, you can take advantage of faculty and staff Work at Home (WAH) rights for any of the application, system, and CAL products you order for institution use. With these rights, the primary user of a school desktop PC can use the WAH software on a home desktop PC for work. Users are not licensed to use the software at home for personal use. The school may incur some costs for obtaining and distributing the WAH media.
Also, under School Agreement 3.5, schools can take advantage of the Home Use Program (HUP), a benefit of the Microsoft Software Assurance coverage included with the agreement. With HUP, your faculty and staff members can get Microsoft Office software to use on their home desktop PC for both work and personal use at a nominal cost.
Providing the HUP software is easy for the institution. Once your Software Assurance benefits administrator activates the benefit, individual faculty and staff members can order and pay for shipping of their software online. Please note that institutions are not permitted to provide software with the same title to any individual faculty or staff member using both HUP and WAH.
For personal use, faculty and staff are also eligible to acquire specially priced Academic Edition full packaged products.
How can my school easily distribute software to faculty and staff?
Schools or districts that acquire temporary licenses using the School Agreement can distribute the software to faculty and staff to install on school desktop PCs using the methods described below. You must obtain all media from a Microsoft-approved fulfillment source.
Load the software on a secured site and have eligible faculty and staff download the software to desktop PCs that they manage.
Faculty and staff can bring the desktop PCs that they manage to a central location designated by the school, and then download from the school network or CDs.
Set up a library checkout system for CDs for faculty and staff.
Replicate CDs for faculty and staff.
Acquire individual CDs to distribute to your faculty and staff. CD pricing can be obtained from your reseller. Reseller prices may vary.
You can distribute software for Work at Home (WAH) use to faculty and staff in the following ways only:
You can acquire and distribute one copy of each applicable CD-ROM or disk set to each authorized user. You must acquire these CDs or disk sets (known as student media) from your reseller in minimum quantities of 25 per title up to the number of licensed users. You may not duplicate media for Work at Home use.
You can allow controlled download from your secure network server(s) or other storage device(s) using Volume Licensing media (such as Starter Kit media) that you acquired to install on your institution desktop PCs.
You can manually install licensed products on your users' desktop PCs at a central location that you control using Volume Licensing media.
You can control short-term checkout for applicable Volume Licensing media just for individual users to install. This option is available only for products that do not require a Volume Licensing Key (VLK) (products that do not include Microsoft Product Activation). You cannot distribute VLKs to users for Work at Home use.
Can my school copy the software? Yes. You can make as many copies as you need to distribute the software to your faculty and staff users to install on their school desktop PCs. All copies must be true and complete copies (including copyright and trademark notices) and must be made from CD-ROMs, disk sets, or a network source acquired from or made available by a Microsoft approved source. You may also have a third party make and distribute such copies in your place, but you are responsible for the third party's actions the same way you would be if the third party was your employee. You may not duplicate or replicate software for students or Work at Home use. Student and Work at Home CDs are only available to order from your reseller.
How does my school get installation media for the products in the subscription? You are automatically shipped one complimentary Starter Kit containing CDs for the School Agreement products you ordered. You are also then registered for one complimentary Update Subscription. With this subscription, you automatically receive a CD or DVD when a product you are licensed for releases an upgrade or update during your subscription's term. Your complimentary Starter Kit and Update Subscription include media for up to two languages. If you require media for more than two languages, you may order additional Starter Kits and Update Subscriptions from your reseller.
Can I get additional Starter Kits and Update Subscriptions? Yes. You can get additional Starter Kits (called Comprehensive Kits) and Update Subscriptions from your reseller.
How does my school acquire other Microsoft product licenses not covered in School Agreement? Open License for Academic, Select License for Academic, and Academic Edition full packaged products are still available options for education customers wanting the wide range of other Microsoft products.
What is the policy for upgrades and downgrades under School Agreement? You can upgrade to the newest versions of your licensed products (or use previous versions) throughout your licensed period.
Can I use my School Agreement Windows Upgrade licenses and media for installing Windows on a desktop PC that does not currently have an operating system? No. To install the upgrade license through School Agreement, you must have a fully licensed version of Windows already installed on your desktop PC. For example, if you currently run the Windows XP operating system, your School Agreement Windows Upgrade license lets you upgrade to the Windows Vista® operating system. To run any version of a Windows operating system licensed through School Agreement, you or your users must have a valid license for a Microsoft or Macintosh operating system on each desktop PC that runs the software. Please consult the Microsoft Volume Licensing Product List for more information about qualifying operating systems.
Are international versions available under School Agreement? Yes. Your school can acquire international versions of product licenses within the product offering. The pricing for international versions of the products is the same as for English versions.
How can my school cancel out of the subscription? Your school can cancel out of the subscription at any time during the licensed period through the Buy-out option. You can do this by purchasing perpetual licenses for the products and quantities that you want to continue using. The Buy-out option may only be exercised before the licensed period expires. Please check with your AER for the Buy-out pricing.
Is technical support included with School Agreement?
Your School Agreement does not include technical support. However, there are several technical support options designed by Microsoft to meet the special needs of education customers. F

As part of the Software Assurance membership you automatically receive by participating in School Agreement, you are eligible for various resources to help you deploy and use your software, such as Microsoft TechNet, E-Learning, and more. Learn more about Software Assurance.
Does School Agreement replace any existing Volume Licensing programs?
No. Microsoft offers two additional Volume Licensing programs for K-12 customers to choose from:
Open License for Academic gives you volume-based pricing for virtually any size school. You can start with as few as five licenses, and you'll have the advantage of discount pricing for the entire two-year term. Open License for Academic is easy to include in a total desktop PC solution and ideal for institutions that need to acquire small quantities of licenses. It also has a simple transaction model and great flexibility.
Select License for Academic provides volume licensing for institutions, ideally with 250 or more PCs, that can forecast their software needs for a three-year period. You receive a special volume price for each pool of products selected (applications, systems, servers) based on your projected needs.
Do School Agreement customers receive the benefits of Software Assurance? Yes. Software Assurance membership is included with your School Agreement coverage, which entitles you to product upgrades during the subscription term, resources and tools such as Home Use Program (HUP), TechNet, and E-Learning courses. Learn more about Software Assurance or consult the Microsoft Volume Licensing Product List.
Can schools other than K-12 institutions participate in School Agreement? Yes. Qualifying preschools may also participate in the School Agreement program. Check eligibility details.
Is there a similar program for higher education customers (colleges and universities)? Yes. Microsoft Campus Agreement is available for colleges and universities.
Do primary and secondary school educators have any input into this licensing program? Yes. Microsoft gathers feedback worldwide from customers and resellers throughout the year in a number of ways. Microsoft representatives meet with customers and resellers on a regular basis to discuss their licensing needs. Microsoft also conduct formal focus groups about licensing.