Frequently Asked Questions about nySTART and Data Verification
Q1. I entered the UserID and password received in my welcome package on the login screen. I received a message saying that I had entered an invalid password. Why won’t my password work?
A1. Passwords are case sensitive. Be sure that you enter your password using all capital letters.
Q2. My enrollment report does not include some of my students who are placed out of district. I know that these students had records in the Level 1 Repository. Why aren’t they showing up on my report?
A2. The Level 2 Repository only accepts records with valid BEDS codes. On records for students served in BOCES programs, the BEDS code on the School of Location record must be the general BOCES code, four digits followed by eight zeros. A list of valid BEDS codes for public schools, charter schools, BOCES, nonpublic schools, and approved private placements will soon be available at: http://www.p12.nysed.gov/irs/nystart/.
Make sure that the BEDS code you have entered for each student is on this list. If you have a student in an out-of district placement that is not listed, please contact Robert Waxman in the Office of Vocational Services to Individuals with Disabilities at (518) 474-2714 or RWAXMAN@MAIL.NYSED.GOV. If you have a question, about a BEDS code for other than an out-of-district placement, please contact Cheryl Mitchell in Information and Reporting Services at (518) 474-7965 or CMITCHEL@MAIL.NYSED.GOV.
Q3. If data are wrong in my report, how do I make corrections?
A3. General directions for making data changes can be found in the cover memo to each verification report. Because there are multiple ways that districts may prepare data for the repository, if you have questions about specific procedures for changing data, you must contact your regional information center. Staff in New York City schools should contact their DAA liaisons. Syracuse staff should contact Miryam Sabrina Parody.
Q4. Students who enrolled in my school on January 21 or later do not show up on my Enrollment and Demographics verification report. How can I verify the data for these students?
A4. The Enrollment and Demographics verification report is based on a snapshot of student data that includes all students reported on the repository as enrolled in the district between January 9 and January 20. We will provide the opportunity at a later time to verify and correct data for students enrolled after those dates. Remember that you may correct repository data at any time that you find an error. Once data has been moved from the Level 2 Repository to a vendor or to the Level 3 Repository, from which State reports are generated, corrections to Level 2 data will not be reflected in reports based on those sources.
Q5. We have printed a data verification report through nySTART for a school and have noticed that the column listing disability description actually shows program services such as LEP, Poverty etc. Why?
A5. It appears that LEP eligibility and poverty information has been loaded in the disability column, along with other disability descriptions. This is a data loading issue that needs to be corrected in Level 1.
Q6. Why are the reports printing our local ID number in the Statewide unique ID field?
A6. The local ID shows up in place of the unique State ID when the unique State identifier has not yet been loaded into the Level 1 data warehouse. Once the State ID's are implemented in the data warehouse, the local ID will become the alternate ID and the State ID will take it's place in the student ID field and on the verification reports.
Q7. The reports waste a lot of space printing headings on each page. If there was not so much wasted space, perhaps the text in the body would be readable. How can this be corrected?
A7. Exporting the report to Excel (1 page option) will create a more compact report with less wasted space with the header. The trade off is that the report will not have the same quality in appearance.
Q8. Is there a way to run the reports for the district in one batch? We have been printing each school separately by grade. This is not efficient.
A8. There is currently no batch mode for a district. However, a report can be generated for a whole school by drilling down on a row total (grey cell). This will create one report for each school, rather than a grade within a school.
Q9. What does the time and date stamp on the Cognos connection screen refer to?
A9. Each verification report listed on the Cognos connection screen (the screen entered after successful login to nySTART) will indicate when it was last "modified". This is the time and date when the code for the report was last changed. Every user will see the same date and time displayed for each of the verification reports. It does not relate to when data was modified.
Q10. Why doesn't the Excel icon on the Cognos/Verification Report screen work?
A10. This is a local configuration issue. The below resolutions have solved this problem. Users may need to try more than one:
1. Popup blockers should be turned off. They may prevent the Excel window from appearing. Once in Internet Explorer, select Tools, Internet Options, Privacy tab, then turn off the popup blocker.
2. In Windows XP using certain versions of Excel will cause the window to go away after trying to render. This is not an issue with Cognos but an anti-malicious attack setting in the Microsoft products. In Internet Explorer, you need to trust the Grow report site in the Internet Options. If using Firefox, this is not an issue.
3. Hold down the Ctrl key while clicking on the Excel button.
4. Verify the settings in Windows Explore>Tools>Folder Options>File Types>select XLS file type>make sure that "Open with" value is Excel. Additionally, Advanced>Browse in the same window should be checked off.
5. Excel must be installed on the PC.
Q11. After several attempts to log onto nySTART using a bad password the user was locked out. How can this lock-out be cleared?
A11. The lockout gets cleared automatically after 15 minutes.
Q12. How do I log out of nySTART when I'm not on the home page?
A12. There are two ways to log out: either close the browser or click Cognos Connection at the top right corner of the screen, then log off.
To contact us regarding the nySTART system, please click the HELP button located in the bottom right corner of the screen.