We report results of a study of the electronic excitation of silane by low-energy electron impact, including cross sections from 10 to 40 eV impact energy for excitation of the first triplet and singlet excited states (2t(2)-->4sa(1))T-1,3(2). Our results are calculated using the Schwinger multichannel method as implemented for massively parallel computers and include a correction for high-impact-parameter excitation of the optically allowed T-1(2) transition. We also report values of the total dissociation cross section derived from our calculations and total scattering measurements, and we compare these with direct measurements of the dissociation cross section.