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 2 close is scheduled for the last week in January:

11 PM EST, Monday, January 27
All PY13 Q2 data should be entered into SPARQ.

Morning of Tuesday, January 28
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 29
SPARQ will close for the processing of the QPRs. Any data entered after noon on January 29 will not be reflected in the PY13 Q2 QPRs. 

While SPARQ is shut down for the Quarter 2 close, Release 6.4 will be implemented.

• The demographic section on the QPR will be revised to separately track participants who indicated more than one race on the application.
• Edits and functionality will be added to prevent new enrollments for participants who have reached their durational limit.
• There will be several new edits:

Details are available here. 

DOL ETA’s Technical Operations department's routine monthly maintenance is scheduled for the first Thursday of each month. If SPARQ is up during a scheduled outage, it will be unstable and should not be used.
 

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.