All SPOCs, Technical Contacts, and CAD Contacts:
An issue was discovered this morning with Business Objects (BO). BO applications were found to be unstable due to BO servers having not been rebooted since Thursday, December 21, 2023. Multiple Counties contacted the IBM Boulder Help Desk this morning stating that reports were suspended.
The BO team rebooted the BO servers at 8:30 this morning. Counties were able to log in to BO and create reports after the reboot.
BO applications are now stabilizing. Reports should process completely overnight.
The BO team is aware of the BO issues and is working on an upgrade to rectify the issue.
Action Required
Review scheduled BO reports today and tomorrow morning. Rerun the report jobs, as necessary.
Announcement
CWDS Website Glossary Update
All SPOCs:
The CWDS Office is pleased to announce a Glossary update to the CWDS website:
The intent of these changes is the continued improvement and ease of use for the CWDS website. These changes will be implemented on Friday, December 15, 2023.
Action Required
Contact the CWDS Customer Relations team if you have any questions.
The CWDS Office is pleased to announce a Glossary update to the CWDS website:
- The CWDS Glossary is located under ‘Stakeholder Resources’ dropdown to ‘CARES User Resources’.
- Under the ‘General’ column you will find the CWDS Glossary link.
- On the CWDS Glossary you will now be able to search for Terms or Acronyms by typing into the search box and clicking on the search icon, or selecting by alpha order and scrolling.
The intent of these changes is the continued improvement and ease of use for the CWDS website. These changes will be implemented on Friday, December 15, 2023.
Action Required
Contact the CWDS Customer Relations team if you have any questions.
Continuation of CWS/CMS C# Migration Code Testing - REMINDER
All CWS Directors, Probation Chiefs, SPOCs, and Technical Contacts:
The CWS/CMS migration from Visual Basic 6 (VB6) to C# code project is still in progress to ensure that the CWS/CMS Application runs on a supported platform. As many are aware, VB6 is no longer supported by Microsoft. Recently a phase of testing was conducted with Co-Existent and Dedicated County participants that uncovered some issues that have been fixed and some that need to be retested. Therefore, at this time we would like to resume C# testing with county users.
The next phase of the resumed C# testing is planned to last four weeks, beginning December 11, 2023, through December 21, 2023, with a brief break for the holidays and resuming on January 8, 2024, then concluding January 18, 2024. We are looking for both Dedicated and Co-Existent Counties who can participate to join a County Test Workshop (CTW) to further test the C# code. We would like to get as much participation from both Dedicated and Co-Existent Counties to make this a success.
Server Based Computing (SBC) soft tokens is the sole tool that will be used to connect to the CTW environment for this phase of testing.
We are looking for testers that have a broad knowledge of the CWS/CMS Application and can simulate case actions that reflect daily work performed by social workers.
The CTW will be structured so that participating testers will receive both broadly defined scenarios to test various areas of the CWS/CMS application along with a list of Incidents that have been identified in previous CTWs that require retesting. In addition, testers will be asked to perform volume, robust testing of the C# code to see if it can handle various activities to support the way daily child welfare activities are performed by social workers. A few examples of testing scenarios might instruct testers to open a form after multiple cases are opened, close and reopen cases, access different areas of CWS/CMS, perform searches, and then try to perform additional actions in CWS/CMS to see how well the C# code handles the workload.
CWS/CMS C# CTW Schedule
CWDS is seeking fifteen (15) County staff members for each of the sessions below (two (2) sessions per day):
CWDS is seeking twenty (20) County staff members for each of the sessions below (two (2) sessions per day):
CWS/CMS C# County Test Workshop Registration
We appreciate the counties continued support by participating in the different phases of testing the C# code. It’s your support that will help us to confirm that the code is thoroughly tested and ready for migration.
The CWS/CMS C# County Test Workshop Online Registration Form (see link below) for each potential tester must be received as soon as possible, but no later than 5PM on November 16, 2023.
Link: https://forms.gle/GBkTdChs9zNrTioR8
If for any reason, you cannot access the Online Registration Form or if you have any questions regarding this CTW recruitment, please contact Customer Relations.
The CWDS Office will work with the registered participants on all the details of their CTW participation.
Again, your continued support of CWDS is greatly appreciated.
Action Required
Submit a C# County Test Workshop Online Registration Form no later than 5PM on November 16, 2023.
The CWS/CMS migration from Visual Basic 6 (VB6) to C# code project is still in progress to ensure that the CWS/CMS Application runs on a supported platform. As many are aware, VB6 is no longer supported by Microsoft. Recently a phase of testing was conducted with Co-Existent and Dedicated County participants that uncovered some issues that have been fixed and some that need to be retested. Therefore, at this time we would like to resume C# testing with county users.
The next phase of the resumed C# testing is planned to last four weeks, beginning December 11, 2023, through December 21, 2023, with a brief break for the holidays and resuming on January 8, 2024, then concluding January 18, 2024. We are looking for both Dedicated and Co-Existent Counties who can participate to join a County Test Workshop (CTW) to further test the C# code. We would like to get as much participation from both Dedicated and Co-Existent Counties to make this a success.
Server Based Computing (SBC) soft tokens is the sole tool that will be used to connect to the CTW environment for this phase of testing.
We are looking for testers that have a broad knowledge of the CWS/CMS Application and can simulate case actions that reflect daily work performed by social workers.
The CTW will be structured so that participating testers will receive both broadly defined scenarios to test various areas of the CWS/CMS application along with a list of Incidents that have been identified in previous CTWs that require retesting. In addition, testers will be asked to perform volume, robust testing of the C# code to see if it can handle various activities to support the way daily child welfare activities are performed by social workers. A few examples of testing scenarios might instruct testers to open a form after multiple cases are opened, close and reopen cases, access different areas of CWS/CMS, perform searches, and then try to perform additional actions in CWS/CMS to see how well the C# code handles the workload.
CWS/CMS C# CTW Schedule
CWDS is seeking fifteen (15) County staff members for each of the sessions below (two (2) sessions per day):
- Monday, December 11, 2023 (AM or PM session)
- Tuesday, December 12, 2023 (AM or PM session)
- Wednesday, December 13, 2023 (AM or PM session)
- Thursday, December 14, 2023 (AM or PM session)
- Monday, December 18, 2023 (AM or PM session)
- Tuesday, December 19, 2023 (AM or PM session)
- Wednesday, December 20, 2023 (AM or PM session)
- Thursday, December 21, 2023 (AM or PM session)
CWDS is seeking twenty (20) County staff members for each of the sessions below (two (2) sessions per day):
- Monday, January 8, 2024 (AM or PM session)
- Tuesday, January 9, 2024 (AM or PM session)
- Wednesday, January 10, 2024 (AM or PM session)
- Thursday, January 11, 2024 (AM or PM session)
- Tuesday January 16, 2024 (AM or PM session)
- Wednesday, January 17, 2024 (AM or PM session)
- Thursday, January 18, 2024 (AM or PM session)
CWS/CMS C# County Test Workshop Registration
We appreciate the counties continued support by participating in the different phases of testing the C# code. It’s your support that will help us to confirm that the code is thoroughly tested and ready for migration.
The CWS/CMS C# County Test Workshop Online Registration Form (see link below) for each potential tester must be received as soon as possible, but no later than 5PM on November 16, 2023.
Link: https://forms.gle/GBkTdChs9zNrTioR8
If for any reason, you cannot access the Online Registration Form or if you have any questions regarding this CTW recruitment, please contact Customer Relations.
The CWDS Office will work with the registered participants on all the details of their CTW participation.
Again, your continued support of CWDS is greatly appreciated.
Action Required
Submit a C# County Test Workshop Online Registration Form no later than 5PM on November 16, 2023.
CWS/CMS: California Department of Education - Updated Providers List
All SPOCs and Technical Contacts:
October 3, 2023 UPDATE: Resending this communication to correct the Application Support team’s email address to osicwdsAppSupport@osi.ca.gov.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
On Friday, July 28, 2023, 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.
Please see this 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.
Action Required
Review the attached list of closed Education Providers; if the county determines a data correction may be needed, contact the Application Support team at osicwdsAppSupport@osi.ca.gov or Customer Relations.
October 3, 2023 UPDATE: Resending this communication to correct the Application Support team’s email address to osicwdsAppSupport@osi.ca.gov.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
On Friday, July 28, 2023, 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.
Please see this 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.
Action Required
Review the attached list of closed Education Providers; if the county determines a data correction may be needed, contact the Application Support team at osicwdsAppSupport@osi.ca.gov or Customer Relations.
CWS/CMS Business Intelligence (BI) and Data Quality (DQ) - Portals Migration
All SPOCs, Technical, County Access Data (CAD), and Data Quality (DQ) Contacts:
We want to inform you that the Business Intelligence (BI) and the Data Quality (DQ) - Portals are being migrated to the CWDS Web Site on November 1, 2023.
The Business Intelligence and Data Quality Portals will be migrated to a new web page of the CWDS Web Site. The new site will go live on November 1, 2023, under the Stakeholder Resources tab on the CWDS website. Also, effective November 1, the “CWS/CMS Portals” link on the CWDS website will be updated to “CWDS Portals.” Portal links on the current portals site will redirect users to the CWDS website portal location from November 1 – December 31. The current CWS/CMS Portals page will be completely decommissioned on January 1, 2024. Please remember to update your favorite bookmarks to the new URL.
The New Business Intelligence - Portal site will include:
The New Data Quality - Portal site will include:
Action Required
Please review the new BI and DQ Portals information with your BI/CAD and DQ personnel. If you have any questions or concerns with the migration, please contact Customer Relations.
We want to inform you that the Business Intelligence (BI) and the Data Quality (DQ) - Portals are being migrated to the CWDS Web Site on November 1, 2023.
The Business Intelligence and Data Quality Portals will be migrated to a new web page of the CWDS Web Site. The new site will go live on November 1, 2023, under the Stakeholder Resources tab on the CWDS website. Also, effective November 1, the “CWS/CMS Portals” link on the CWDS website will be updated to “CWDS Portals.” Portal links on the current portals site will redirect users to the CWDS website portal location from November 1 – December 31. The current CWS/CMS Portals page will be completely decommissioned on January 1, 2024. Please remember to update your favorite bookmarks to the new URL.
The New Business Intelligence - Portal site will include:
- BI Guides (Including the BO Admin Guide), BI Documents, CAD Contacts, xTools – Link to download, and the BI Contact info.
The New Data Quality - Portal site will include:
- DQ Latest Updates, and Links for Auto-Cleanup Counties, DQ SCR List, Data Cleansing Instructions, DQ Team Documents, DQ Workshop information, County DQ Analyst Contacts
Action Required
Please review the new BI and DQ Portals information with your BI/CAD and DQ personnel. If you have any questions or concerns with the migration, please contact Customer Relations.
CARES Project Roadmap Approval: Informational Sessions Presentation
All CWS Directors and SPOCs
Sent on Behalf of CWS-CARES Project Leadership
Thank you to those who were able to attend the CARES Project Roadmap Approval Informational Sessions. As a follow-up from these sessions, please see CARES Project Roadmap Approval for a copy of the presentation for reference. We look forward to providing more project information in the future via upcoming executive implementation briefing meetings, organization implementation team kickoffs, semi-annual stakeholder forums, and the CWDS website.
We would like to thank everyone once again for their contributions and support for CWS-CARES reaching this important milestone and we look forward to continue sharing more information with you in the future.
Sincerely,
Jessica Rougeux, Child Welfare Systems Branch Chief, CDSS
Cynthia Tocher, OSI CWDS Deputy Director
Tricia Gonzalez, CWDA Executive Liaison
Sent on Behalf of CWS-CARES Project Leadership
Thank you to those who were able to attend the CARES Project Roadmap Approval Informational Sessions. As a follow-up from these sessions, please see CARES Project Roadmap Approval for a copy of the presentation for reference. We look forward to providing more project information in the future via upcoming executive implementation briefing meetings, organization implementation team kickoffs, semi-annual stakeholder forums, and the CWDS website.
We would like to thank everyone once again for their contributions and support for CWS-CARES reaching this important milestone and we look forward to continue sharing more information with you in the future.
Sincerely,
Jessica Rougeux, Child Welfare Systems Branch Chief, CDSS
Cynthia Tocher, OSI CWDS Deputy Director
Tricia Gonzalez, CWDA Executive Liaison
CWS/CMS: May 2023 MS Windows Patches
All Co-Existent County SPOCs and Technical Contacts:
As requested, here is the list of patches that IBM tested and applied to the Dedicated County Windows 10 Workstation for May 2023:
May 2023 MS Office Patches
MS23-MAY: Security Update for Microsoft Word 2016 - Word 2016 - KB5002369 Important
MS23-MAY: Security Update for Microsoft Excel 2016 - Excel 2016 - KB5002386 Important
May 2023 Windows 10 21H2 Patches
MS23-MAY: Cumulative Update for Windows 10 Version 21H2 - Windows 10 Version 21H2 - KB5026361 (x64) Critical
May 2023 Windows 10 LTSB Patches
MS23-MAY: Cumulative Update for Windows 10 Version 1607 - Windows 10 Version 1607 LTSB - KB5026363 (x64) Critical
Action Required
No action is required. Informational only.
CARES Project Roadmap Approval
It is our pleasure to announce the much-anticipated approval of the Child Welfare Services-California Automated Response and Engagement System (CWS-CARES) project roadmap. This marks a significant milestone in the project’s development and path towards delivering CWS-CARES.
Some highlights of this approval include:
-
The delivery of CWS-CARES through two versions - CARES Version 1 (V1) and Version 2 (V2)
- V1 will replace and retire CWS/CMS and go-live in Oct. 2026. It will include the following capabilities
-
Intake
-
Screening
- Investigations: Engagement and Determination
-
- Resource Management
- Provider Directory
-
Services (Array)
-
Case Management
- Engagement and Services
-
Placement
-
Case Closure
-
Adoption
-
Prevention Services
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Aftercare and Re-entry
-
Case Plan
- Courts
- Warrants
-
Court Hearing Framework
-
Jurisdiction, Disposition, and Other Hearings
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Status Reviews
- Eligibility
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Request Determination and Redetermine Eligibility
-
Eligibility Programs
-
-
Financial Management
- Track Administrative and Assistance Costs
-
Track Service Delivery (including FFPSA)
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Resource Family Approval (RFA)
- RFA Application Submission (RFA Greenfield enhancements)
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Maintain Resource Family Home
-
Complaints and Legal Action
-
Reporting and Analytics
- Federal Extracts and Indicators
-
State Reports
-
Ad-hoc Reporting, Data Extract and Data Visualization
-
-
V2 will build on core functionality of V1, expand on additional capabilities, such as advanced analytics, continued implementation of interfaces with external systems and child welfare contributing agencies, and will be tied to Federal CCWIS compliance. Go-live is scheduled for April 2028
- V1 will replace and retire CWS/CMS and go-live in Oct. 2026. It will include the following capabilities
-
The implementation of V1 to all end users at the same time across the state, reducing the risk to child safety by establishing a single statewide system at go-live and eliminating the need for end users to work across two systems
-
County and Tribal Core Constituent Participation is planned and budgeted for through CARES V1 and V2
We would like to thank everyone for their contributions and support for CWS-CARES reaching this important milestone and look forward to sharing more information in the future.
Click here to view the CWDS Roadmap.
If unable to find a specific Bulletin, please contact Communications.