Bulletin

What is Impacted: CWS/CMS Application

On Friday, December 19, 2025, from 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM, the CDE Interface will run to update Education Provider information for public schools, private schools, and school districts in the CWS/CMS application. This update applies to CDE school information only. School information manually created by a CWS/CMS user will not be affected. During this time, users may be unable to perform Education Provider searches in the CWS/CMS application.

Due to differences in data and formatting between CDE and the CWS/CMS application, some otherwise valid Education Providers may be end-dated.  If this occurs, please refer to the Work Around section below. A list of all end-dated Education Providers will be sent to the SPOCs via email as soon as they become available.

Work Around
If an existing CDE Education Provider has been end-dated because of this process, users will need to conduct a search for the current Education Provider and create a new Education Notebook for the client.

Contact
CWDS Customer Relations

All SPOCs and Technical Contacts:

This communication is a notification that a bulletin has been posted to the CWDS website. As a reminder, ‘CWDS Bulletins’ are located beneath the ‘Follow Our Progress’ header on the CWDS website’s home page. The bulletin provides a reminder of the update of Education Provider information in the CWS/CMS application on Friday, December 12, 2025.

Action Required

Please review the bulletin and share the information with appropriate personnel within your Organization.

All SPOCs and Technical Contacts:

The California Department of Technology (CDT) is experiencing an issue with their shared statewide template. This issue is causing a latency issue with the www.ca.gov websites, including the CWDS website, https://cwds.ca.gov. When attempting to access the website, users will experience delays, or find the site unreachable, as the page’s contents are loading.

The CDT will deploy a fix to improve the latency later today. The CWDS Office has already applied a patch to mitigate the issue. Loading delays should be reduced.

We will provide additional updates as we receive them.

Action Required

If users experience any issues with the CWDS website, please follow your county process for reporting issues or you may contact the IBM Boulder Help Desk at 1-800-428-8268.

CARES SPOCs, Implementation Coordinators, OCM Coordinators, County Leadership, Tribe Leadership, Probation Leadership, and State Leadership:
 

Data Dictionary V0.06 – Now Available

CWS-CARES Data Dictionary V0.06 is now available on the Microsoft Teams Channel: CARES Data Dictionary under Files. 

The Intro tab of the CWS-CARES Data Dictionary highlights all updates in the new version, making it easy to see what is new or changed.

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County Forms: AEM vs Word

Having trouble deciding whether to build a form in Word or Adobe AEM? Here are some key questions to ask: 

• Does the final output (CWS-CARES generated document) need to be a Word document? Use Word as the template.    

• Does this document require collaboration with members outside of CWS-CARES before finalizing content for generation in CWS-CARES? Use Word. 
• Does this document require track changes and/or commenting to be turned on during collaboration before finalizing content for generation in CWS-CARES? Use Word.
• Is there a need for the template to have advanced features? Use Adobe AEM.
• Does this document require CWS-CARES to automatically trigger e-Sign? Good news: you can use either Word or Adobe AEM!

If you have any questions about the features available for Word or Adobe AEM, please reach out to CWDS CARES Forms.

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Dreamforce Conference Recap

The CWS-CARES Project attended Salesforce’s Dreamforce Conference from October 14-16 to gain a deeper understanding of the Salesforce platform and to connect with our partners.

Kimberly Glenn participated in a Health and Human Services Panel to help other government agencies understand how CWS-CARES is solutioning for the children and families of California.

Julie Al-Huneidi (Director of Product Development) and Arun Sukumaran (Architecture and Engineering Chief) participated in a panel to help government agencies understand the importance of building a Center of Excellence (CoE) for their Salesforce projects with their Salesforce Customer Success and Professional Services partners.

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October 2025 Stakeholder Briefing Recap

Thanks to all those who attended the October 2025 Stakeholder Briefing! Three hundred and two participants attended, with representation from 39 counties and four partner organizations.

The recording of the session is now available on the CWS-CARES Stakeholder Webinar Materials page on the CWDS website. The accessible slide deck and Q&A document will be posted in coming weeks.

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Share Your Feedback and Subscribe

Thank you for following our progress! Share your feedback on this CWS-CARES Weekly Digest here: CWS-CARES Weekly Digest Feedback Form. Subscribe to future issues here: CWS-CARES Weekly Digest Subscription Form. 

Action Required

We request that all CARES Single Point of Contacts (SPOCs) and Implementation Coordinators coordinate and distribute the CARES Weekly Digest to all staff impacted by CWS-CARES, at their discretion. 

All SPOCs, Technical Contacts, and SBC Administrators:

The California Department of Technology (CDT) has scheduled maintenance on Saturday, October 25, 2025, beginning at 6:00 AM and concluding at 10:00 AM. During the maintenance window, CDT will apply Standard Monthly OS Security Patches to SBCS Infrastructure Servers. There is no anticipated outage for this maintenance; however, CDT is asking that everyone log off from the Citrix SBC system, if not actively using it during the maintenance window.

Action Required

If users experience any issues with CWS/CMS, please follow your county process for reporting issues or you may contact the IBM Boulder Help Desk at 1-800-428-8268.

CARES SPOCs, Implementation Coordinators, OCM Coordinators, County Leadership, Tribe Leadership, Probation Leadership, and State Leadership:
 

Reminder: Register for the October Stakeholder Briefing

Registration is still open for CWS-CARES Stakeholder Briefing #4 on October 22, 2025, from 10AM – 12 Noon!

This live webinar will feature updates from Project Leadership, Technology, External Systems, Implementation, OCM, and Training, and Product. The Briefing will conclude with a 30-minute demonstration on the Administrative Service Console in CWS-CARES.

A recording of session along with the presentation deck and Q&A documentation will be available on the Stakeholder Briefings and Webinars page on the CWDS Website.

Register now!

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Conference Season Updates – 2025 CWDA Annual Conference and Dreamforce 

The CWS-CARES Project participated in the annual CWDA Conference October 8-10 in Santa Clara. The CWS-CARES Project conducted a 90-minute Breakout Session and multiple demonstration viewings. Thanks to those who attended and visited our booth!

The CWS-CARES Project is also going to Salesforce’s Dreamforce Conference this week (October 14-16) to gain a deeper understanding of the Salesforce platform and to connect with our partners. We are looking forward to strengthening relationships and building CWS-CARES together!

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Technical Improvements: Streamlined Document Management with Microsoft Word

In September, the project sent a communication to encourage counties and organizations to use Microsoft Word to create forms, as it may be more efficient. Since then, the project has been addressing and removing some of the barriers related to using Word.

The project team is pleased to announce a significant enhancement to CWS-CARES. In direct response to user feedback, our team has been working to simplify Word document management in CWS‑CARES.

Users will be able to view, edit, and save Word documents directly within the CWS-CARES application without the need to download them. Users will be able to save modifications directly within CWS‑CARES, without having to worry about version control.

This functionality – which was technically challenging to achieve until very recently – represents a major step forward. This feature is currently in development. We will share more details when it becomes available. For questions, please reach out to the CWS-CARES Forms Mailbox.

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October 2025 Data Dictionary/SqlDBM Office Hours

On October 7, 2025, the CWDS Data Management team held another drop-in Office Hours session designed to provide hands-on training, live demos, and answer your questions related to the Data Dictionary and SqlDBM.

This monthly meeting series is recorded. The recordings are posted on the CWS-CARES Data Dictionary channel. If you have any questions or would like to be invited to the series, please contact CWDSDataManagement@otsi.ca.gov.

Additional Office Hours for participants who have been to Tableau and AEM Forms training are also available:

• Wednesdays from 2:00 – 3:30: Tableau/Salesforce CARES102 Environment Office Hours Support
• Thursdays from 2:00 – 3:00: AEM Forms Office Hours for Form Authors

Check the Events Calendar for more details.

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Share Your Feedback and Subscribe

Thank you for following our progress! Share your feedback on this CWS-CARES Weekly Digest here: CWS-CARES Weekly Digest Feedback Form. Subscribe to future issues here: CWS-CARES Weekly Digest Subscription Form. 

Action Required

We request that all CARES Single Point of Contacts (SPOCs) and Implementation Coordinators coordinate and distribute the CARES Weekly Digest to all staff impacted by CWS-CARES, at their discretion. 

CARES SPOCs, Implementation Coordinators, OCM Coordinators, County Leadership, Tribe Leadership, Probation Leadership, and State Leadership:
 

CWS-CARES Progress and Engagement Summary: September 2025

The September Progress and Engagement Summary is now available. This monthly summary was specifically formulated as a direct response to your valuable stakeholder feedback. Each monthly summary includes the following data from the previous month: 

• Participation rates for key meetings 

• A list of product demos and topics covered, by date 

• Updates from teams across the project   

We encourage you to review and share the CWS-CARES Progress and Engagement Summary with your teams. 

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Update: Build Drop 4 Status 

As of October 6th, Build Drop 4 code has been deployed to the State QA environment for testing. This includes:  

• Adoption & After Care and Re-Entry (Finish a Case Process Area)  
• CalSAWS (Interface)  
• Forms for Adoption 
• After Care and Re-Entry  

The completion of the development in Build Drop 4 signifies that we are closing in on completing the development of the CWS-CARES application. These features will be available for testing during EUST 3. 

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Reminder: CWS-CARES is Coming to the 2025 CWDA Conference! 

The CWS-CARES Project is excited to participate in the annual CWDA Conference on October 8-10, 2025, in Santa Clara. Visit our booth to connect with the team, explore resources, and pick up giveaways. The CWS-CARES Project will conduct a 90-minute Breakout Session and multiple demonstration viewings. Participants will have an opportunity to learn more about CWS-CARES and ask questions to Project leadership. We hope to see you there! 

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Share Your Feedback and Subscribe

Thank you for following our progress! Share your feedback on this CWS-CARES Weekly Digest here: CWS-CARES Weekly Digest Feedback Form. Subscribe to future issues here: CWS-CARES Weekly Digest Subscription Form. 

Action Required

We request that all CARES Single Point of Contacts (SPOCs) and Implementation Coordinators coordinate and distribute the CARES Weekly Digest to all staff impacted by CWS-CARES, at their discretion. 

CARES SPOCs, Implementation Coordinators, OCM Coordinators, County Leadership, Tribe Leadership, Probation Leadership, and State Leadership:

CARES Explorer Newsletter – September 2025

We are pleased to present the September 2025 issue of the CARES Explorer, the long‑form newsletter published each quarter! For the best experience, please open the link using the Microsoft Edge browser. This issue includes the following article topics:

Project Updates: Read a message from the director of Product and get the latest details and a sneak peek into the October 2025 Stakeholder Briefing Agenda.

Explore CWS-CARES: Learn about upcoming testing periods for CWS-CARES, information and document sharing between CWS-CARES and CalSAWS, and changes to Optimistic Concurrency in CWS‑CARES. Discover what to expect for Resource Family Approval (RFA) in CWS-CARES and the new External Systems resources available on the CWDS website.

Implementation Corner: Read about how the San Luis Obispo OCM team uses creativity to build excitement for CWS-CARES, and the latest statistics from the CWS-CARES Pop-Up Shop. Also, included is an update on the first user group in the CWS-CARES Sandbox.

We recommend that you share this newsletter at your discretion with staff that are impacted by the changes coming with CWS-CARES. You may also obtain all previous CARES Explorer issues on the CWDS website: CARES Compass/Explorer | Child Welfare Digital Services

If you have any questions, need clarification, or have any accessibility issues, please do not hesitate to contact Customer Relations.

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Stakeholder Briefing #4 – Reminder to Register

Register now for Stakeholder Briefing #4 on Wednesday, October 22, 2025, at 10AM – 12PM. All stakeholders are invited to attend this webinar to hear an update on the CWS-CARES Project. Registration is required to attend.

All webinar materials, including a recording of the session, slides, and Q&A document, will be available on the CWDS website after the session. View page 3 of the September 2025 CARES Explorer for more information on Stakeholder Briefing #4.

We look forward to your participation!

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Thank you for Shopping! The Pop-Up Shop is Now Closed

Thank you to everyone who ordered from the CWS-CARES Pop-Up Shop! The first shop closed on September 26, 2025, with thousands of items ordered. We are thrilled by the participation from counties and organizations across the state! We are confident these items will build excitement and enthusiasm for CWS-CARES. Check out page 6 of the September CARES Explorer for more information and statistics on the most popular items from the Pop-Up Shop.

The next Pop-Up Shop is planned for March 2026 and will feature a new selection of branded items. If you have future item suggestions, please fill out the survey: CWS-CARES Pop-Up Shop: Merch Ideas.

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CWS-CARES is Coming to the 2025 CWDA Conference!

The CWS-CARES Project is excited to participate in the annual CWDA Conference on October 8-10, 2025, in Santa Clara. Visit our booth to connect with the team, explore resources, and pick up giveaways. The CWS-CARES Project will conduct a 90-minute Breakout Session and multiple demonstration viewings. Participants will have an opportunity to learn more about CWS-CARES and ask questions to Project leadership. We hope to see you there!

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Reminder: The CWS‑CARES Public Library

The CWS-CARES Public Library is designed to provide you with quick and easy access to articles about CWS‑CARES Product Features, Service Areas, Milestones, Teams & Roles, Data & Interfaces, and other important topics covered in the Explorer newsletter. On the CWS-CARES Public Library page, you can search by keyword or browse articles by category. Click on any article title to view the full text on its own page. No login is needed to access the articles; feel free to share these with your team!

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Share Your Feedback and Subscribe

Thank you for following our progress! Share your feedback on this CWS-CARES Weekly Digest here: CWS-CARES Weekly Digest Feedback Form. Subscribe to future issues here: CWS-CARES Weekly Digest Subscription Form. 

Action Required

We request that all CARES Single Point of Contacts (SPOCs) and Implementation Coordinators coordinate and distribute the CARES Weekly Digest to all staff impacted by CWS-CARES, at their discretion. 

CWDS Customer Relations

CWS_CustRel@otsi.ca.gov

All SPOCs, Technical Contacts, and SBC Administrators:

The California Department of Technology (CDT) has scheduled maintenance on Saturday, September 27, 2025, beginning at 6:00 AM and concluding at 10:00 AM. During the maintenance window, CDT will apply Standard Monthly OS Security Patches to SBCS Infrastructure Servers. There is no anticipated outage for this maintenance; however, CDT is asking that everyone log off from the Citrix SBC system, if not actively using it during the maintenance window.
 

Action Required

If users experience any issues with CWS/CMS, please follow your county process for reporting issues or you may contact the IBM Boulder Help Desk at 1-800-428-8268.

• October Stakeholder Briefing Registration
• Announcing the CWS-CARES Weekly Digest
• The CWS-CARES Pop-Up Shop
• The New External Systems Portal
• Upcoming Communications