SPARQ is now available. The PY14 Quarter 2 QPRs are final.
 

The next maintenance will be on Friday, January 30. SPARQ is scheduled to be unavailable from 8 PM EST on Friday until 6 AM EST on Saturday. If SPARQ is up during periods of scheduled maintenance, it will be unstable and should not be used.
 

The"Annual Update of the HHS Poverty Guidelines" was published in the Federal Register on January 22, 2015.
 

The PY14 Quarter 2 close is scheduled for the last week of January. Here is the detailed schedule:

11 PM EST, Monday, January 26
All PY14 Quarter 2 data should be entered into SPARQ.

Morning of Tuesday, January 27
All grantees should take a final look at their DQRs. If any cross-grantee errors have arisen, please notify BCT at once so that they may help resolve these issues. It is strongly recommended that no additional data be entered. Please use this time solely to resolve any remaining errors.

12 noon EST, Wednesday, January 28
SPARQ will close for the processing of the Quarter 2 QPRs. Any data entered after noon on January 28 will not be reflected in the PY14 Quarter 2 QPRs.
 

The Data Validation Handbook for the PY14 validation of the PY13 data is now available. The deadline to complete validation is June 1, 2015.
 

The sample for the PY14 validation of the PY13 data is now available.
 

The PY14 Quarter 1 QPRs are final.
 

The PY13 End-of-Year QPRs are final.
 

                             

A security enhancement has been made to the SPARQ login page.  Previously, a user who forgot the password could request that the password be sent via e-mail.  Since it is not secure to send current passwords via e-mail, that function has been replaced.  The new function now allows a user to reset the password.  The following message is displayed at the bottom of the login screen:

 

To reset your password, enter your user ID then click here, and you will be sent an e-mail containing your temporary login information.

 

When the user logs in with the temporary password, it will be necessary to change the password immediately.  This new function can be used by a user who has forgotten the password, or by a user who has accidentally locked the account by entering an incorrect password three times.  Users with expired accounts will not be able to use this reset function.  Instead, they will receive the following message:

 

You cannot reset your password because your password is expired. Please contact your administrator

 

SPARQ 6.5.2 has been implemented.

Performance improvements have been made to the following reports:
        1.Current/Exited
        2.Started Employment but Not Yet Achieved Entered Employment
        3.Achieved Entered Employment but Not Yet Achieved Retention
        4.Assignments by Host Agency
        5.Host Agency

Please note that the last four of those reports require that a process be run before data changes will be reflected in the report.  For now, that process will run at 7 AM, 11 AM, 3 PM, and 7 PM.  We will assess the impact of that process on overall system performance, and if possible, increase the frequency with which it is run.  Please also note that, for those four reports, any changes made to data will not be reflected until the next time the process is run.

Edit E6.b-1, Since “Other reason for exit” is “For cause” or “Non-income eligible” or “Durational limit,” “Date of termination letter” must be valued, has also been implemented.  This edit only affects records where the exit date is on or after 7/1/2014.
 

The PY13 Quarter 4 QPRs are final.
 

SPARQ Release 6.5 has been implemented.  Details about the contents of the release are availablehere.
 

The persistent unemployment table for 2011 through 2013 (in effect between January 1 and December 31, 2014) has been uploaded to SPARQ. This table is also availablehere.
 

SPARQ is now available.  The PY13 Quarter 3 QPRs are final.
 

SPARQ Release 6.4 has been implemented. The following changes have been made:

•   The demographic section on the QPR was revised to separately track participants who indicated more than one race on the application.
•   Functionality has been added to allow a user to close a prior session.
•   Edits and functionality have been added to prevent new enrollments for participants who have reached their durational limit.
•   There are several new edits:
    o   to regulate IEPs and OJEs,
    o   to prevent waiver factor and recertification dates after exit, and
    o   to prevent grantees from entering successful follow-up information for placements that were outside the quarter or quarters in which credit for the Common Measures can be earned.
•   The edits based on the poverty guidelines were updated to reflect the new guidelines effective January 22, 2014.

Details are available on the SCSEP website at http://www.scsep-help.com/.  

The PY13 Quarter 2 QPRs are final.
 

The data validation sample for the PY13 validation of the PY12 data is now available. The Data Validation Handbook will be available soon. It is currently being updated to include the information needed for next year. In the meantime, data validators can use last year’s handbook for this year’s validation.
 

The PY13 Quarter 1 QPRs are final.
 

Release 6.3 was deployed on September 26, 2013. The changes made in this release are as follows:

• An Authorized Positions utility was added, so that each grantee can enter its own information directly into SPARQ.  Instructions will be provided to all grantee administrators.

• Five more edits have been made verifiable. This means grantee administrators will have the ability to mark the data element in question as “verified” and thereby suppress the warning. They are:
o P5, "Home phone number" is blank.
o P9-1, "Application date" is before 1986; please verify.
o P33-3, Applicant "Date of signing" is before 1986; please verify.
o P43-4, "Date of eligibility determination" is before 1986; please verify.
o A13-2, "Assignment date" is before 1986; please verify.

• Instructions were added to several management reports.

• Various text and label revisions will be made in several management reports and automatic e-mails.
 

The minor revisions listed below have been made to the SPARQ Security Policy. The revised document is available on theSPARQ Security Policy page.
• Attachment A must be submitted via e-mail; sending via fax is no longer an option.
• Phone Number must be provided.
• Each SPARQ account must have a unique e-mail address.
• Accounts whose User IDs do not conform to the formatting requirement are subject to immediate deletion.
• In order to ensure that accounts are not used by multiple persons, concurrent logins are not permitted.