Children's Television Reports

The Children's Television Act of 1990, 47 C.F.R section 73.671(a), and later legislation, oblige television broadcast licensees to serve, over the term of a license, the educational and informational needs of children. Commercial television stations must report their children's educational and informational broadcast programming efforts to the FCC by electronically filing FCC Form 398, Children's Television Programming Report, each quarter. Non-commerical television broadcast stations are exempt from this reporting requirement.

The Children's Television Reporting System is the FCC's computer system for accepting, retaining, monitoring, and publicly disclosing Children's Television Programming Reports. Forms 398 filed with the FCC are recorded in a database. Members of the public can monitor children's television programming aired on commercial television broadcast stations by accessing the database.

Find a Filing

Find a particular Form 398 filing by typing the broadcaster's call sign and the filing period. Given a call sign and filing period, this report will display the requested form filed by that station. Optionally, the first couple of letters of a call sign may be specified along with a filing period, and the system will return a list of filings with similar call signs.

Find "Core" Educational Television Programming for Children

Get information about core educational TV programs aired by commercial television broadcast stations in your area that are specifically designed to educate and inform children. Under the FCC's rules, core educational programs have serving the educational and informational needs of children as a significant purpose; are aired between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m.; are regularly scheduled weekly programs; are at least 30 minutes in length; and are identified by the display of the symbol E/I throughout the program.

Find Other Educational Television Programming for Children

Get information about non-core educational TV programs in your area. Non-core programs are designed to educate and inform children, but do not qualify as core educational programs under the FCC's rules. For example, a monthly educational special is not a core educational program because it is not a regularly scheduled weekly program, but it can still serve the educational and informational needs of children.

Search for a Particular Educational Television Program for Children

Get information about a particular children's educational program broadcast by commercial television stations, including when and if it is aired in your area.

Find Planned "Core" Educational Television Programming for Children

Get information about core educational TV programs in your area that stations plan to air next calendar quarter that are specifically designed to educate and inform children. Under the FCC's rules, core educational programs have serving the educational and informational needs of children as a significant purpose; are aired between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m.; are regularly scheduled weekly programs; are at least 30 minutes in length; and are identified by the display of the symbol E/I throughout the program.

Children's Television Information System User's Manual