January 08, 2025
Communications
All SPOCs and Training Contacts:
The Child Welfare Digital Services (CWDS) Office is requesting county staff to participate in the Release 9.6 County Test Workshop (CTW). Registered testers will participate in the testing of Release 9.6 Data Quality SCRs, which is scheduled for delivery to the Counties on May 17, 2025.
The CTW for Release 9.6 will be conducted in a remote setting via Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) workstations.
The deadline to register is Thursday, January 9, 2025
System Change Requests (SCRs) included in this release are:
- SCR 8982 - Add Missing Name for Placement Homes for CARES
- SCR 8983 - Add Missing Name for Non-Foster Care Facilities for CARES
- SCR 8999 - Update Client Dates out-of-range for CARES
- SCR 8985 - Make Name Mandatory for Non-Foster Care Facility
- SCR 8989 - Cleanup Outdated Home Studies
- SCR 8843 - Transfer Enrollment between DOE Schools
- SCR 8967 - Duplicate Hearing Notebook Warning
- SCR 8972 - ACL 22-95 ICWA Eligibility Data Entry Mandatory Fields (Part B)
- SCR 8943 - Expand Merge History Log
- SCR 9020 - R9.6 Training Tools Package
Counties are encouraged to register individuals with knowledge and experience working in the areas mentioned above. A mix of end users with casework or supervisory experience will also be beneficial. Participants will validate the changes in the release and will perform tests of problem fixes and enhancements. Participants will work with other County and State testers and vendor support staff.
Remote CTW sessions will take place in the morning from 9:00AM - 12:00PM and again in the afternoon from 1:00PM – 4:00PM on the following dates:
R9.6 Data Quality SCRs in the VB6 Environment
CWDS is seeking a total of fifteen (15) County staff members for each of the following twelve (12) sessions (2 sessions per day):
Tuesday, February 4, 2025 (AM or PM session)
Wednesday, February 5, 2025 (AM or PM session)
Thursday, February 6, 2025 (AM or PM session)
Tuesday, February 11, 2025 (AM or PM session)
Wednesday, February 12, 2025 (AM or PM session)
Thursday, February 13, 2025 (AM or PM session)
R9.6 Data Quality SCRs in C# Environment
CWDS is seeking fifteen (15) County staff members for each of the C# fourteen (14) sessions (2 sessions per day).
Tuesday, April 1, 2025 (AM or PM session)
Wednesday, April 2, 2025 (AM or PM session)
Thursday, April 3, 2025 (AM or PM session)
Monday, April 7, 2025 (AM or PM session)
Tuesday, April 8, 2025 (AM or PM session)
Wednesday, April 9, 2025 (AM or PM session)
Thursday, April 10, 2025 (AM or PM session)
Participants are welcome to register for any of the sessions listed above in half or whole-day increments.
We encourage you to submit your request for a specific session as soon as possible, but no later than 5:00 PM on January 9, 2025. If a session’s count exceeds the maximum count, Customer Relations will work with that tester to be rescheduled for another session. Thank you in advance for your cooperation.
A Release 9.6 CTW Online Registration Form (see link below) for each potential tester must be received as soon as possible but no later than 5:00 PM on January 9, 2025, so the CWDS office can finalize the needed arrangements.
Link: Release 9.6 Data Quality SCRs (VB6 and C#) County Test Workshop (CTW) Registration Form
The CWDS Office will work with the registered testers on all the details of their CTW participation.
Special Note:
The County data will be pulled from the Production environment and copied to the CTW environment at the close of business on Tuesday, January 14, 2025. Therefore, changes to your Production environment after this date will not be in the CTW environment.
If you cannot access the Online Registration Form or have any questions regarding this recruitment, please email CWS_CustRel@osi.ca.gov.
Your continued support of CWDS is greatly appreciated.
Action Required
Submit a Release 9.6 County Test Workshop Online Registration Form no later than 5:00 PM on January 9, 2025.
December 20, 2024
Communications
All SPOCs:
Effective Monday, December 23, 2024, the CWDS Office has decided to relocate the following areas/pages from the public-facing CWDS website and move them to the County Logon area (https://cwds.ca.gov/):
- County Info | State Recognized County Administrator List
- County Info | Regional Chair page
- County Info | 24 x 7 Site List
- Data Quality Portal | Data Quality Workgroup Leads list
- Data Quality Portal | CWS/CMS Data Quality Dashboard
- Probation Users | “Who to Contact” document
- Probation Users | SPOC Guide
- County Contacts Page (moved to County Logon area on December 16, 2024)
With this change, users are required to log in using a valid email address that is recognized by the organization's email domain.
Users attempting to access these pages will be prompted to enter their login credentials for the CWDS website if they are not already logged in. This change will take effect on Monday, December 23, 2024.
Action Required
No action is required. Users can sign up with a valid organizational email domain to access the pages listed above, as well as any other sections of the CWDS website that require recognized login credentials.
Please contact the CWDS Customer Relations mailbox if you have any questions regarding this action.
December 09, 2024
Communications
All SPOCs and Technical Contacts
On Friday, December 6, 2024, the list of Education Providers in the CWS/CMS application was updated with data obtained from the California Department of Education (CDE). During this update, several Education Providers in the application were end dated. This occurs whenever an existing CWS/CMS Education Provider no longer shows up as an active Education Provider in the data obtained from CDE.
Attached is a list of all closed Public Education Providers and all closed Private Education Providers that were end dated during this update. This information is being provided to assist counties with determining if any data corrections are needed.
Please contact CDE with any questions regarding the list of closed schools.
Email: cdsadmin@cde.ca.gov
December 05, 2024
Communications
CWS-CARES SPOCs Implementation Coordinators, OCM Coordinators and Core Constituent Points of Contact:
We have created two new resources to help you understand the CWS-CARES user feedback process and effectively communicate within your organization about CWS-CARES.
Attached, you will find:
Core Constituent Infographic: A guide to understanding how Core Constituents engage with CWS-CARES, including:
- The Core Constituent Participation Model
- How Core Constituents provide feedback on CWS-CARES
- Opportunities to stay informed
CWS-CARES Communications Infographic: A guide on how to participate in and support CWS-CARES communications. It covers:
- An overview of the three main CWS-CARES communications roles
- Opportunities to stay informed
How to Use These Resources
Both infographics are attached. We encourage you to save them for reference and print them as needed.
Action Required
If you have any questions, need clarification, or have any accessibility issues, please do not hesitate to contact Customer Relations at CWS_CustRel@otsi.ca.gov.
December 02, 2024
Communications
All SPOCs and Technical Contacts:
EFFECTIVE December 16, 2024, CWS-CARES RELEASE 0.15 PRODUCTION RELEASE IS PLANNED TO MOVE INTO PRODUCTION
The CWS-CARES team has scheduled release activity that will interrupt connectivity to the CWS-CARES Resource Family Approval (RFA) Application Submission, Review, and Approval Process for pilot counties Contra Costa, Fresno, Placer, and Santa Clara. The release activity is planned to begin at 5:00 PM on December 16, 2024, and conclude at 11:00 PM. During this scheduled outage, users in pilot counties will not be able to access the CARES RFA application.
CWS-CARES Release 0.15:
The purpose of this release is to primarily deliver fixes for known issues, enhancements to behind-the-scenes functionality and security improvements to CWS-CARES Resource Family Approval (RFA) Application Submission, Review, and Approval Process.
CWDS is excited to share the new RFA features that are planned to be available following the implementation of CWS-CARES Release 0.15 on December 16, 2024, to the CARES-RFA Pilot County users. These new features are derived from user feedback as well as project planned enhancements.
As a resource to pilot counties, over the next few weeks, your organization can expect to receive information regarding a Webinar along with an updated Participant and Quick Reference Guide. These resources will provide the system users with details of the features/functionality that have been added since the last production release.
RFA Application Process:
The RFA Application process is the Receipt, Record, Submission, and Assignment of an Application. The RFA Application process was selected as the first software build for CARES. CARES will ultimately replace the legacy Child Welfare System CWS/CMS. The RFA Application Process will operate in a totally new Production Environment without integrating with other legacy systems, such as the CWS/CMS and CARES-Live applications.
RFA Application Process Features:
- Allows an applicant or County staff member to initiate an emergency or standard application to become a resource family home
- Creates a facility profile that tracks required information to complete this process, including background check results, completion of orientation and training hours, physical home assessment, and family evaluation
- Aggregates information into a report to recommend approval or disapproval of a resource family application
Action Required
RFA Pilot County users review new features in the CWS-CARES Production Environment after December 17, 2024.
All Release Notes, including information for this release once available, can be found here: RFA Application Process Release Notes and Interim Processes
November 21, 2024
Communications
Specific CWDA Staff Related to Child Welfare, County Directors and Alternates, Organization Leadership, CARES Implementation Coordinators, and CARES SPOCs, ELT, PMO, State Communications, Strategic Communications, Implementation Management, Implementation Leads, and Evident Change:
There have been many questions regarding the future of SafeMeasures® and Structured Decision Making® (SDM) assessments with the implementation of CWS-CARES. You may have heard previously that SafeMeasures will exist as a separate function. To address this, we are providing more information and guidance on the integration approach.
To enhance efficiency and data-driven decision making with CWS-CARES Version 1, SDM® assessments will be seamlessly integrated into the CWS-CARES platform via single sign-on. The CWS-CARES Project is currently planning the SafeMeasures integration. Ultimately, SafeMeasures and SDM tools will be embedded into CWS-CARES, and 25 years of historical data collected through these tools will be accessible.
This integration provides a unified user experience and reduces the need for switching between multiple systems. Further, it will ensure continuity for counties, with CWS-CARES handling more direct operational reports and SafeMeasures continuing to provide more complex reporting. SafeMeasures in CWS-CARES will retain its critical and most-used features and reports, as well as the collaborative service relationship between CDSS, counties, and Evident Change.
SafeMeasures and SDM will be part of CWS-CARES and should not be treated as separate, external systems. Therefore, they will not require the same level of effort or planning as external systems, particularly for tasks like data conversion, ongoing operations, or decommissioning.
Here is the impact on county budgets and the transition of SafeMeasures costs:
CWS-CARES Project Coverage: The CWS-CARES project will cover the costs associated with integrating SafeMeasures into the system and ongoing maintenance. This means there will be no additional costs to county budgets for these specific activities.
State Assumption of Costs: Based on the planned CWS-CARES Version 2 implementation date, the State expects to take over county costs associated with SafeMeasures starting on July 1, 2028. As such, counties will continue to be responsible for their existing SafeMeasures contracts and access until June 30, 2028. This includes any associated costs during this period. Counties must continue to submit an Advance Planning Document (APD) to the California Department of Social Services prior to executing, renewing, or amending the agreement or paying for associated services. Please see County Fiscal Letter 23/24-12 for APD submission requirements and details. This means counties shall plan to end their contracts on June 30, 2028, and will no longer be responsible for these costs after this date.
In summary:
- SafeMeasures and SDM tools will be embedded into CWS-CARES via a single sign-on with access to historical data and reports already in use.
- Counties will not incur additional costs for the integration and maintenance of SafeMeasures and SDM into CWS-CARES.
- Counties will continue to be responsible for their contracts until June 30, 2028.
- The state will assume the costs of SafeMeasures starting July 1, 2028.
Counties will receive additional communications about this transition once details are finalized, including the impact on APD submission for current county SafeMeasures costs and determining county budgets.
Sincerely,
The CWS-CARES Project – Executive Leadership Team
California Department of Social Services (CDSS)
Action Required
No action needed.
November 20, 2024
Communications
All SPOCs:
November 20, 2024 UPDATE: Resending this reminder to include the CARES-Live Profile – Create Account document that was missing with the previous reminder communication sent on November 19, 2024.
_________________________________________________________________________
As discussed at the last CARES-Live Meeting in September, we will now be using a newly added ‘Role’ on the CWDS website (cwds.ca.gov) as our foundation for the CARES-Live Quarterly Meeting attendees list. This new ‘Role’ allows a user to self-select it to be added to the new CARES-Live Quarterly Meeting series, beginning in January 2025.
In an effort to form this list and perform some distribution list cleanup, we kindly ask that you follow the steps detailed in the ‘CARES-Live Profile – Create Account’ document, to add the role to your CWDS website profile.
Please complete this by 5:00 PM on November 27, 2024, so that we have sufficient time to create the new CARES-Live Quarterly Meeting series and send out the invite to everyone who wants to participate in the meeting.
Action Required
Please share this information with any relevant individuals in your organization who may be interested in attending this meeting series.
If you have any questions or issues on the process to add this role to your profile, please reach out to Customer Relations.
November 01, 2024
Communications
All SPOCs:
As discussed at the last CARES-Live Meeting in September, we will now be using a newly added ‘Role’ on the CWDS website (cwds.ca.gov) as our foundation for the CARES-Live Quarterly Meeting attendees list. This new ‘Role’ allows a user to self-select it to be added to the new CARES-Live Quarterly Meeting series, beginning in January 2025.
In an effort to form this list and perform some distribution list cleanup, we kindly ask that you follow the steps detailed in the attached ‘CARES-Live Profile – Create Account’ document, to add the role to your CWDS website profile.
Please complete this by 5:00 PM on November 27, 2024, so that we have sufficient time to create the new CARES-Live Quarterly Meeting series and send out the invite to everyone who wants to participate in the meeting.
Action Required
Please share this information with any relevant individuals in your organization who may be interested in attending this meeting series. If you have any questions or issues on the process to add this role to your profile, please reach out to Customer Relations.
October 30, 2024
Communications
All SPOCs:
We are pleased to announce an update to the CWDS Planning Roadmap posted on the CWDS public website. The updated roadmap illustrates planned releases in the following systems: CARES-Live, CARES RFA and CWS/CMS. The updated planning roadmap includes CARES Version 1 (V1) milestone descriptions, critical training and implementation activities, and Extended User Scenario Testing (EUST) periods. In addition to the CWDS Planning Roadmap, we are posting a high-level roadmap focusing on the CARES V1 Project Lifecycle.
Accessing the new page:
- The CWDS Planning Roadmap and high-level CWS-CARES V1 Project Lifecycle is located under the ‘Stakeholder Resources’ dropdown, under the ‘Project Reporting’ link.
- Under ‘Project Reporting’ you will find the ‘CWDS Planning Roadmap & Timeline’ link.
Roadmaps are subject to change and will be updated as needed. For a more detailed status of product development please see our latest CWS-CARES Monthly Legislative Update.
Action Required
If you have any questions, need clarification, or have any accessibility issues, please do not hesitate to contact CWDS Communications.
October 14, 2024
Communications
All SPOCs and Technical Contacts:
The California Department of Technology (CDT) reported a major incident, impacting multiple applications and services, caused by a CDT network outage. CDT has investigated the issue and has restored the services. There have not been any reported issues with CWS/CMS, CARES-Live, or CWS-CARES applications. There were reports of issues with connecting to the CDT Virtual Private Network and possibly to Citrix Server Based Computing (SBC).
Action Required
CWS/CMS Users
If users experience any issues with CWS/CMS, or with using VPN or SBC, please follow your county process for reporting issues, or you may contact the IBM Boulder Help Desk at 1-800-428-8268.
CARES-Live Users
Please follow your county process for reporting issues. CARES-Live County Administrators may contact the CARES Service Desk through the CWDS ServiceNow Customer Support Management (CSM) Portal. Alternate methods are phoning 1-855-292-3444 or via email at Servicedesk@cwds.ca.gov during normal business hours. You may also email after hours, and a Service Desk representative will contact you the next business day.
