CWS/CMS

CWS-CARES Data Dictionary, Training Video, and Upcoming Webinar

April 01, 2025 Communications
External Systems Points of Contact, CARES SPOCs, County Leadership, CARES Implementation Coordinators, and OCM Coordinators:
 
April 1, 2025 UPDATE: As stated in the original communication sent out on March 4, 2025, the CWS-CARES Data Dictionary will be published on a quarterly basis. This update is to notify everyone that v0.03 of the CWS-CARES Data Dictionary is now available to view in the MS Teams channel under ‘Files.’

This updated version includes:
1) Newly added tab:
a) "Column Definitions" tab
2) Changes to the current tabs:
a) "Tables" tab - newly added/removed object names based on application development activities.
b) "Columns" tab - newly added/removed columns names based on application development activities.
c) "Relationships" tab - modified relationships based on application development activities.
d) "Columns" tab - added “Unique” column.
e) "Columns" tab - removed “DISPLAYED_ON_SCREEN” column. This column will be added back in future versions.
___________________________________________________________________________________________
This email provides an update on the CWS-CARES Data Dictionary information previously communicated to External Systems Points of Contact and CARES SPOCs on February 11, 2025. 
We are excited to share that the initial version of the CWS-CARES Data Dictionary and legacy mapping of CWS/CMS is now available. We have also created a training video that provides a walkthrough of the materials, and a Webinar will be held on March 20, 2025 where staff can get further details and ask questions. See below for more details. 
Updates since our last communication: 
  1. CWS-CARES Data Dictionary Preview Session Complete: On February 13, 2025, a small group of counties previewed the Data Dictionary and provided feedback, which was incorporated into the Data Dictionary. 
  1. New Microsoft Teams Channel: A dedicated Microsoft Teams channel has been created for all CWS-CARES Data Dictionary-related materials. Your county’s Implementation Coordinator and CWS-CARES Single Point of Contact (SPOC) will be invited to the MS Teams channel. The Teams Channel is located under the CWDS Org Share, and the Channel name is CARES Data Dictionary. See the below section For Reference: Accessing Materials in MS Teams for more instructions on how to access materials. 
  1. CWS-CARES Data Dictionary and Legacy Mapping – Ready for Review: The initial version of the CWS-CARES Data Dictionary, which incorporates legacy mapping of CWS/CMS fields is now available in the Teams channel under Files. The folder name is CWS-CARES Data Dictionary v0.02. 
  1. Training Video Available: A training video has been uploaded to the Teams channel under Files, in the folder called Walkthrough Recording. Please watch the video before reviewing the materials to ensure a clear understanding of the content.  
  1. FAQ Document Available: A FAQ is located on the Teams channel under CARES Data Dictionary FAQs Tab.
  1. Terms of Use: The CWS-CARES Data Dictionary documentation is considered sensitive and confidential. Please read the CWDS Terms of Use located on the Teams channel under Files. 
  1. Upcoming Webinar: A webinar will be conducted on Thursday, March 20, 2025 from 9 AM – 10 AM. Your county’s Implementation Coordinator and CWS-CARES SPOC will be invited, and the meeting invitation may be forwarded to others. The webinar will cover navigation of the CWS-CARES Data Dictionary, utilization of the support documentation, and use of legacy mapping documentation with the CWS-CARES Data Dictionary. 
  1. Adding Staff to the Teams Channel: We kindly ask that you email CWDSDataManagement@osi.ca.gov with any additional County staff names and associated email addresses and their roles that should have access to the Microsoft Teams Channel:  CARES Data Dictionary. 
Publication and Ongoing Updates 
  • Updates to the CWS-CARES Data Dictionary will be published quarterly in the Teams channel. The next version will be available March 31, 2025.
  • Future versions will include significant changes, including potential additional and updated legacy mapping. 
Communication and Support 
  • Please refer to the FAQs in the Teams channel. 
For Reference: Accessing Materials in MS Teams
Under CWDS Org Share, select the CARES Data Dictionary channel.

In the CARES Data Dictionary Channel, select the Files Tab. The initial version of the Data Dictionary is available in the folder called CWS-CARES Data Dictionary v0.02. 
 
In the CARES Data Dictionary Channel, select the Files Tab. The recorded Training video walkthrough is available in the folder called Walkthrough Recording. 

We appreciate your support and understanding as we work diligently to ensure the successful implementation and ongoing maintenance of the CWS-CARES Data Dictionary. 
Data, Update, CARES, CWS/CMS, CWS-CARES

CWS/CMS: Major Incident Status - VPN Service Unavailable - RESOLVED

April 01, 2025 Communications
All SPOCs and Technical Contacts:

April 1, 2025 UPDATE: The California Department of Technology (CDT) is reporting that the issue with the Virtual Private Network (VPN) has been resolved. Users should now be able to access VPN.
______________________________________________________________________________________
The California Department of Technology (CDT) has reported a major incident. Users are unable to connect to the Virtual Private Network (VPN). The CWDS Infrastructure team and CDT are investigating the issue. There is currently no estimate of when VPN access will be restored.

We will send out updates as new information is received.

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

CWS/CMS: Remote County Testing - Release 9.6 Improved CWS/CMS Data Quality in Preparation for Import to CARES, Phase 3 – FINAL REMINDER

March 24, 2025 Communications
All SPOCs and Training Contacts:

March 24, 2024 UPDATE:  This is a reminder that the deadline to register for the R9.6 County Test Workshop (CTW) is tomorrow, Tuesday, March 25, 2025.
__________________________________________________________________________________________

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 been scheduled for delivery to the Counties on Saturday, August 16, 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 Tuesday, March 25, 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, April 29, 2025 (AM or PM session)
Wednesday, April 30, 2025 (AM or PM session)
Thursday, May 1, 2025 (AM or PM session)
Tuesday, May 6, 2025 (AM or PM session)
Wednesday, May 7, 2025 (AM or PM session)
Thursday, May 8, 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 (10) sessions (2 sessions per day).
Monday, June 23, 2025 (AM or PM session)
Tuesday, June 24, 2025 (AM or PM session)
Wednesday, June 25, 2025 (AM or PM session)
Thursday, June 26, 2025 (AM or PM session)
Friday, June 27, 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 Tuesday, March 25, 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 Tuesday, March 25, 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 Wednesday, April 9, 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 contact CWDS Customer Relations.

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 Tuesday, March 25, 2025.
 
Data, CWS/CMS, Data Management, Release

CWS/CMS: Reports of Server Based Computing Unavailability - RESOLVED

March 17, 2025 Communications
All SPOCs, Technical Contacts, and SBC Administrators:

March 17, 2025 UPDATE: The California Department of Technology (CDT) has resolved the issue which prevented access to Server Based Computing (SBC). Counties are now reporting that they are successfully accessing SBC and are able to launch the CWS/CMS application.

Please contact the IBM Help Desk (800-428-8268) if you continue to experience any issue with accessing CWS/CMS or with SBC.
____________________________________________________________________________________
Multiple counties have reported issues with connecting to Citrix Server Based Computing (SBC). The CWDS Infrastructure Team is working with the California Department of Technology (CDT) to determine the cause and resolution for this issue.

There is currently no estimate of when the issue will be resolved. Updates will be shared as new information is received.

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.
Update, CWS/CMS

CWS/CMS: County Access Data (CAD) Business Objects - RESOLVED

March 14, 2025 Communications
All SPOCs, Technical Contacts, and CAD Contacts:

March 14, 2025 UPDATE: The Search indexing issue has been resolved.
________________________________________________________________________

The CWS/CMS CAD BusinessObjects (BO) server was unavailable last night, January 29, 2025. It was rebooted this morning at 10:10 AM, and the service was restored. The Search indexing caused logging issues for the DB2. Therefore, the Search indexing has been temporarily paused until the issue is resolved. Additionally, no scheduled reports were run this morning, but the scheduler is now running and will catch up soon. Therefore, you may experience some slowness. Please check in periodically for completed reports throughout the morning. 
 
Action Required
Review scheduled BO reports today and tomorrow morning. Rerun the report jobs, as necessary.
Contact CWDS Customer Relations if you require more information regarding this issue.
 
Update, CWS/CMS

CWS/CMS: CDT Service Desk Bulletin – Standard Monthly OS Security Patches to SBCS Infrastructure Servers - March 29, 2025 | 6 AM - 10 AM

March 12, 2025 Communications
All SPOCs, Technical Contacts, and SBC Administrators:
The California Department of Technology (CDT) has scheduled maintenance on Saturday, March 29, 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.
Maintenance, CWS/CMS, CDT

Remote County Testing - Release 9.6 Improved CWS/CMS Data Quality in Preparation for Import to CARES, Phase 3 - REMINDER

March 11, 2025 Communications
All SPOCs and Training Contacts:

March 11, 2024 REMINDER:  This is a reminder that the deadline to register for the R9.6 County Test Workshop (CTW) is Tuesday, March 25, 2025.
__________________________________________________________________________________________

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 been scheduled for delivery to the Counties on Saturday, August 16, 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 Tuesday, March 25, 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, April 29, 2025 (AM or PM session)
  • Wednesday, April 30, 2025 (AM or PM session)
  • Thursday, May 1, 2025 (AM or PM session)
  • Tuesday, May 6, 2025 (AM or PM session)
  • Wednesday, May 7, 2025 (AM or PM session)
  • Thursday, May 8, 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 (10) sessions (2 sessions per day).
  • Monday, June 23, 2025 (AM or PM session)
  • Tuesday, June 24, 2025 (AM or PM session)
  • Wednesday, June 25, 2025 (AM or PM session)
  • Thursday, June 26, 2025 (AM or PM session)
  • Friday, June 27, 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 Tuesday, March 25, 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 Tuesday, March 25, 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 Wednesday, April 9, 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 Tuesday, March 25, 2025.
CWS/CMS, Testing

CDT Service Desk Bulletin - CGEN Vendor Verizon Scheduled Maintenance, Feb.19, 2025 | 12 AM - 6 AM

February 18, 2025 Communications
All SPOCs and Technical Contacts in Mariposa County:
The California Department of Technology (CDT) has scheduled maintenance on Wednesday, February 19, 2025, beginning at 12:01 AM and concluding at 6:00 AM. Users at the listed site will experience a one-hour interruption in connectivity to CWS/CMS and CARES-Live within the scheduled Verizon maintenance window.

Remote access (e.g., Server Based Computing [SBC]) to the CWS/CMS application will not be impacted by this scheduled maintenance.

Action Required
CWS/CMS Users
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-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.
CWS/CMS, CDT, CARES-Live, CWDS, Bulletin

Updated CWS/CMS Workstation Commercial Off the Shelf (COTS) Install Options Guide

February 14, 2025 Communications
All SPOCs and Technical Contacts:
The CWS/CMS Workstation Commercial Off the Shelf (COTS) Install Options guide has been updated to version 7.3. The date of this updated guide is February 5, 2025. IBM/Kyndryl have loaded this updated guide to the Co-Existent Counties’ shared folder (CodeDist\COTS_Software\Windows_11) If a Co-Existent County does not see the updated version in their shared folder, then review to confirm that the folder is synced to copy the files from the IBM folder. A manual sync might be needed if the automated process is not active.

In addition, the guide has also been added to the CWDS website at https://cwds.ca.gov/pages/hardware_technical_information. You can navigate to the guide by opening the ‘CWDS website’ à click the drop-down arrow next to the ‘Stakeholder Resources’ header à click on the ‘CWS/CMS User’ link à click on the ‘CWS/CMS Guides’ link listed below the “County Logon” header ( website logon is required to access this section) à click on the ‘Hardware and Technical Information’ link à click on the ‘CWS Workstation COTS Install Options v7.3’ link.

Action Required
Co-Existent Counties should review the CWS/CMS Workstation COTS Install Options guide to build their workstation image to match the settings used for the Dedicated County image.
Update, CWS/CMS

CWS/CMS: Scheduled System Change Request (SCR) Website Maintenance

February 07, 2025 Communications
All SPOCs:
The CWDS Office and IBM have scheduled a patch update for the System Change Request (SCR) website. The patch window is scheduled for Wednesday, February 12, 2025, beginning at 7:00 PM and concluding at 11:00 PM. The SCR website will be unavailable for approximately one hour within the patch update window.

Action Required
No action needed.
Update, Maintenance, CWS/CMS