March 20, 2025
Communications
Child Welfare Directors, Child Welfare Director-Alternates, Tribal Leadership, Probation Leadership, Core Constituents, CARES SPOCs, and Implementation Coordinators:
Child Welfare Leadership and CWS-CARES Meeting Participants,
As part of our ongoing effort to provide you greater insight into upcoming meetings for the CWS-CARES project, please see the updated CWS-CARES Meeting Calendar for March – May 2025. This calendar includes all meetings hosted by the CWS-CARES project, including Core Constituent demonstrations, implementation meetings, and key workgroups.
This calendar includes the following sessions:
- Prototype Demonstrations: Core Constituents review prototypes, or pre-build designs of CWS-CARES, to represent system functionality, to provide early feedback on user experience, navigation, and screen actions before the designs go into development.
- Build Review Demonstrations: Core Constituents see some of the feedback they provided in the Prototype Demonstrations reflected in CWS-CARES and provide further feedback on the developed product.
- Extended User Scenario Testing (EUST) 2: Participants will test end-to-end real-world scenarios in CWS-CARES.
- NEW Process Information Sessions: Designed for OCM Coordinators, these sessions outline new processes in CWS-CARES and their impact on staff workflows, helping counties, probation departments, CDSS, and Tribes with Title IV-E Agreements update policies and procedures.
Action Required
Please share this information with those at your organization you feel should be informed. Note: This calendar is point-in-time and subject to change. The CWS-CARES project plans to deliver a sustainable, more real-time calendar solution that will be accessible to all meeting participants and leadership in late March 2025.
If you have any questions, please contact CWS_CustRel@otsi.ca.gov.
March 19, 2025
Communications
All Pilot County RFA Implementation Coordinators and SPOCs:
The CWS-CARES team has scheduled maintenance activity for the CWS-CARES production environment for Thursday, March 27, 2025, beginning at 5:00 PM and concluding at 6:00 PM. During the maintenance window, the CWS-CARES Resource Family Approval (RFA) Application Submission, Review, and Approval Process will be accessible for pilot counties Fresno, Placer, and Santa Clara.
There is no anticipated impact for CWS-CARES users. We are sharing this information in the unlikely circumstance that there is an actual impact during the scheduled maintenance window and the CWS-CARES application becomes inaccessible.
Action Required
No action required for end-users is needed during this maintenance window.
If users experience any issues with the CWS-CARES, please follow your county process for reporting issues. CWS-CARES 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.
February 27, 2025
Communications
To: Core Constituent Points of Contact
The feedback you have provided in our quarterly Core Constituent Surveys is driving meaningful improvement in how we communicate, collaborate, and enhance the CWS-CARES experience. We are sharing a summary of the completed and in progress actions we have taken from your feedback.
Changes Made Based on Your Feedback
- Enhanced Feedback Process: You expressed a desire for better visibility into the status of the feedback you provide and clearer communication about the feedback process.
- Improved Meeting Scheduling and Experience: You shared that meetings should be scheduled in advance, a clear view of upcoming meetings should be available for planning, and agendas should include enough detail to help determine who needs to attend and assist with scheduling.
- A standardized Core Constituent Demonstration meeting invite template now includes specific details on agenda items and scenarios.
- The CWS-CARES Meeting Calendar is published monthly to reflect a 3 month view of upcoming meetings, including Core Constituent demonstrations, implementation meetings, and key workgroups. In Spring 2025, we will transition to a real-time meeting calendar on the CWDS webpage, ensuring accurate and up-to-date scheduling.
- Core Constituent demonstrations and key meetings are now scheduled at least 1 month in advance.
- Streamlined Access to Key Information: You requested big picture updates, an updated project roadmap, functionality updates, and demonstrations comparing CWS/CMS and CWS-CARES.
- The CARES Compass: Executive Summary and CARES Explorer: Project Newsletter keep stakeholders informed about project updates, including deep dives into service areas, system functionality, and interfaces.
- The updated CWDS Planning Roadmap is now available on the CWDS webpage.
- The CARES Experiences Timeline reflects organization activities and tasks that provide experiences for direct observation or participation in CWS-CARES up to Version 1 Go-Live.
- The Stakeholder Briefings include Product demonstrations with side-by-side comparisons of CWS/CMS and CWS-CARES.
Upcoming Changes
These items are planning for release in Spring 2025 to further enhance transparency and engagement:
- A Real-Time Meeting Calendar: A new CWDS Meeting & Event Calendar will launch on the webpage, ensuring accurate, up-to-date scheduling with direct access for Core Constituents.
- Big-Picture Project Updates: A Project Progress Summary will provide updates on CWS-CARES progress, including updates on Product, External Systems and Data Conversion, User Engagement, Implementation/OCM/Training, and Project Announcements/Engagement Opportunities.
- Core Constituent Orientation Guide: This resource will provide onboarding support resources for new Core Constituents, including links to key resources.
While there is still room for improvement, we want to keep you informed on what has been accomplished and what is underway. We will continue to share updates as we implement further enhancements.
Share Your Feedback in the Next Survey
We want to continue improving based on your input, and your participation is essential. Stay tuned for a request to complete the next Core Constituent Survey in March 2025.
Action Required
Please share this information with those at your organization who need to be updated.
February 24, 2025
Communications
Registered EUST 2 Participants:
Thank you for your participation in the recently distributed Brief Survey for EUST 2 Planning. As we continue to prepare for the upcoming EUST 2 period, CWDS Project Leadership wishes to ensure that all testers have the best possible experience while participating in EUST 2. Part of ensuring a successful testing experience involves confirming that our testing participants are appropriately trained on navigating CWS-CARES. As such, the training activities planned for EUST 2 will be a requirement in order to participate in the testing process.
We understand that attending the training activities will require an additional time commitment from our participants. However, the hands-on learning opportunities and instructions that participants will be provided during the planned curriculum will prove to be crucial in ensuring that testers are able to effectively navigate the system and provide their feedback efficiently.
Training will be conducted between March 17 to March 21, 2025. The time required for each class is dependent on the tester role, as follows:
Case Management Worker, Eligibility Worker, and Court Worker: Approximately 6-hour class
Date(s) & Timing Offered:
- Daily, Monday (3/17) – Friday (3/21) - Please use the Brief Survey for EUST 2 Planning to indicate your training date preferences. Calendar invitations will be sent, and every effort will be made to accommodate respondents’ top choices.
- 9 – 4pm (Breaks Included)
- Following are the durations of topics covered for each tester role and are subject to change.
| EUST 2 Training: Case Management Worker |
Timing |
| Introduction to CARES and CARES Navigation |
30 min |
| Persons, Contacts and Tribal Inquiries and Documents, Change Assignment, Task |
1 hour |
| Introduction to Investigations Engagement & Determination |
45 min |
| Investigations Engagement & Determination |
| Practice |
| Introduction to Case Management |
1 hour |
| Emergency Placement pre-RFA Home |
| STRTP |
| Practice |
| Introduction to Eligibility |
30 min |
| Request Determination |
| Practice |
| Court Hearing Framework |
1 hour |
| Practice |
| Case |
30 min |
| Practice |
| JNET |
10 min |
| Practice |
Case Management Supervisor: 1-hour class
Date(s) & Timing Offered:
- Daily (Immediately following the Worker program noted above)
| EUST 2 Training: Case Management Supervisor |
Timing |
| Investigations, Determination and Supervisor |
30 min |
| Practice |
| Case Management Supervisor |
30 min |
| Practice |
Probation: Approximately 3-hour class
Date(s) Offered:
- Wednesday, 3/19, 9am – 12pm
- Thursday, 3/20, 9am – 12pm
| EUST 2 Training: Probation |
Timing |
| Introduction to CARES and CARES Navigation |
30 min |
| Persons, Contacts and Tribal Inquiries and Documents, Change Assignment, Task |
1 hour |
| Introduction to Case Management - Probation |
1 hour |
| Cases |
| Placement RFA/FFA |
| Request Determination – Eligibility |
| Practice |
CDSS/Resource Management: 1.5-hour class
Date(s) Offered:
- Wednesday, 3/19, 2pm – 3:30pm
- Thursday, 3/20, 2pm – 3:30pm
| EUST 2 Training: CDSS/Resource Management |
Timing |
| Introduction to CARES and CARES Navigation |
30 min |
| CDSS Oversight and Title IV E Staff Placement |
1 hour |
| Practice |
Makeup training will be offered on March 24 and March 25 from 9AM – 4PM.
Thank you again for your time and participation.
Action Required
Attend the required training sessions appropriate for your EUST 2 tester roles.
February 14, 2025
Communications
To: Child Welfare and Probation CARES SPOCs and Child Welfare Implementation Coordinators
CC: County, Tribe, Probation, and State Leadership, and OCM Coordinators
February 14, 2025 UPDATE: We would like to notify everyone that the January 2025 Q&A (PDF) is now posted to the website. CWS-CARES Stakeholder Briefings | Child Welfare Digital Services.
_____________________________________________________________________________
February 4, 2025 UPDATE: Thank you for taking the time to attend the CWS-CARES Stakeholder Briefing #2 held on Wednesday, January 29, 2025. We were thrilled to have over 557 staff participate, representing an impressive 52 of the 58 California counties, tribal communities, as well as 13 Probation offices. Your active participation and engagement were invaluable.
For your convenience, the presentation slides and recording are now available on our website at CWS-CARES Stakeholder Briefings | Child Welfare Digital Services.
We appreciate the comments and thoughtful questions you raised. We captured over 137 questions during the session, and we will be publishing the session’s Questions & Answers document to the website in the next few weeks.
To stay up to date on the latest CWS-CARES project news, visit the CWDS website and subscribe to our project newsletters.
We value your continued partnership and look forward to seeing you at the CWS-CARES Stakeholder Briefing #3 on June 25, 2025.
If you have further questions or require additional information, please do not hesitate to contact CWDS Customer Relations.
_____________________________________________________________________________
January 27, 2025 UPDATE: If you registered for the session, you should have received an email from CalHHS Office of Technology and Solutions Integration with an Outlook calendar invitation attachment containing the Webinar link. Please note that this invitation will not automatically be added as an event on your calendar; you must open the Outlook calendar invitation attached to the previous email and accept it.
Registrations are still being accepted. To register or re-register for the session, please use this hyperlink: Register for January 29th CWS-CARES Stakeholder Briefing Session
We look forward to your participation.
_____________________________________________________________________________
We hope you found our first Stakeholder Briefing Session in June 2024 informative and useful. We’re excited to announce our Second CWS-CARES Stakeholder Briefing Session to unveil new features, foster engagement, and drive user adoption.
Date: Wednesday, January 29, 2025
Time: 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Format: Webinar
The agenda includes:
- Leadership Opening
- A Holistic Design & User Feedback Update
- Demonstrations and Feature Highlights:
- Intake & Investigations (what’s changed since the last session)
- Case Management
- The Foster Care Eligibility Determination (FCED) interface between CWS-CARES & CalSAWS
- An External Systems Update
- Implementation, OCM, & Training Updates
- Technology Updates
- Q&A
You may register for the session using the CWS-CARES Stakeholder Briefing #2 Registration page.
Registration takes less than a minute by entering your name, email, and county or organization. Once registration is complete, a meeting notice with the session information will be automatically sent to the email provided.
You may register for others or forward this email to staff that might be interested in attending the session. We encourage everyone to register by January 22, 2025.
The session will be recorded. For more information, please refer to the CWS-CARES Stakeholder Briefings page on the CWDS website which contains the session dates, past session recordings, and materials.
Action Required
You are invited to register for the CWS-CARES Stakeholder Briefing #2. We encourage registration by January 22, 2025. For additional questions, please email CWDS Customer Relations at: CWS_CustRel@otsi.ca.gov.
January 16, 2025
Communications
All Pilot County RFA Implementation Coordinators and SPOCs:
The CWS-CARES team has scheduled maintenance activity for the CWS-CARES production environment for Friday, January 17, 2025, beginning at 5:00 PM and concluding at 6:00 PM. During the maintenance window, the CWS-CARES Resource Family Approval (RFA) Application Submission, Review, and Approval Process will be accessible for pilot counties Fresno, Placer, and Santa Clara.
There is no anticipated impact for CWS-CARES users. We are sharing this information in the unlikely circumstance that there is an actual impact during the scheduled maintenance window and the CWS-CARES application becomes inaccessible.
Action Required
No action required from end-users during this maintenance window.
If users experience any issues with the CWS-CARES, please follow your county process for reporting issues. CWS-CARES 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.
January 15, 2025
Communications
We are pleased to present the third issue of the CARES Compass, the two-page executive summary with upcoming project communications and brief informational highlights:
- Stakeholder Briefing #2: This is a reminder of the next CWS-CARES Stakeholder Briefing session on Wednesday, January 29, 2025 – 9AM to 12PM. This session will provide you with valuable insights into CWS-CARES and an opportunity to ask questions.
- Coming Soon - CARES 101 Video: Get ready for the CWS-CARES video #3, coming in early spring 2025.
- Extended User Scenario Testing (EUST) 2: Read about how many counties have volunteered to participate in this activity and important dates to keep in mind.
- RFA with CWS-CARES: In the future, Resource Family Approval (RFA) features will be integrated into CWS-CARES. We highlight the activities in progress.
- Upcoming Events and Communications: This is a list of CWS-CARES communications that will be released in the next three months.
The newest issue of the CARES Compass is available here: The CARES Compass January 2025 | Volume 2, Issue 1
We appreciate your continued commitment to staying informed.
Action Required
No action required.
If you have any questions, need clarification, or have any accessibility issues, please do not hesitate to contact Customer Relations.
January 08, 2025
Communications
All Pilot County RFA Implementation Coordinators and SPOCs:
The CWS-CARES team has scheduled maintenance activity for the CWS-CARES production environment for Saturday, January 25, 2025, beginning at 9:00 PM and concluding on Sunday, January 26, 2025 at 9:00 PM. During the maintenance window, the CWS-CARES Resource Family Approval (RFA) Application Submission, Review, and Approval Process will be accessible for pilot counties Fresno, Placer, and Santa Clara.
During the maintenance window, Tableau Online in the CARES application will not be accessible.
Action Required
No action required from end-users during this maintenance window.
If users experience any issues with the CWS-CARES, please follow your county process for reporting issues. CWS-CARES 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.
December 18, 2024
Communications
To: CARES SPOCs and Implementation Coordinators
CC: County, Tribe, Probation, and State Leadership, OCM Coordinators
We are pleased to share the CARES Explorer - December 2024 issue, the newsletter for staying up to date on the CWS-CARES project.
This is sent directly to our key stakeholders for project communications: County, Tribe, Probation, and State leadership, CARES Single Point of Contacts (SPOCs), and Organization Implementation Coordinators.
This issue contains information on:
Stakeholders: Discover how the Office of Technology and Solutions Integration (OTSI) is working on the project and understand OTSI’s role as the CWS-CARES project sponsor. Read about how the project partners with organizations to ensure information is shared effectively and the three key communication roles that foster statewide adoption and utilization of CWS-CARES. We also highlight Humboldt County’s creative ways to build awareness and enthusiasm for CWS-CARES.
CWS-CARES: This issue highlights the Reports area, the future of SafeMeasures® and Structured Decision Making® (SDM) assessments with the implementation of CWS-CARES, Resource Family Approval (RFA), holistic design updates, and the CARES Prototype demonstrations and feedback.
Hidden Gems: Learn more about the power of plain language, the results from our Organizational Change Management (OCM Survey), EUST2, and the Stakeholder Briefing series.
We recommend that you share this newsletter at your discretion with staff that are impacted by the changes coming with CWS-CARES.
The CARES Explorer – December 2024 issue is now available here: 20241218_CARES_Explorer_Issue 4
You may also obtain all 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.
Action Required:
We request that all CARES Single Point of Contacts (SPOCs) and Implementation Coordinators coordinate and distribute the CARES Explorer Newsletter to all staff impacted by CWS-CARES at their discretion.
