CWS/CMS

ALL SPOCs, Technical Contacts and CAD Contacts:

The California Department of Technology (CDT) has scheduled monthly Microsoft security patching. The patching begins on Friday, September 18, 2026, at 6:00 PM and concludes on Saturday, September 19, 2026, at 1:00 AM. The activity may cause interruptions to the Business Objects (BO) servers within the patching window. The expected impact to users is low; however, there is a potential to cause some BO reports to fail to send, or automated scripts may fail to retrieve.
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Action Required

Review scheduled BO reports and reschedule report jobs to avoid the scheduled maintenance window. Rerun the missed report jobs, if necessary.

Contact the IBM Help Desk (800-428-8268) to report any issues with your Business Objects content.

All SPOCs:

On Friday, July 31, 2026, 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 attached list:

Email: cdsadmin@cde.ca.gov

Phone: 916-327-4014

Action Required

Review the attached list of closed Education Providers; if the county determines a data correction may be needed, contact the CDE.

ALL SPOCs, Technical Contacts and CAD Contacts:

The California Department of Technology (CDT) has scheduled maintenance of the SAFE Cloud service. The maintenance begins on Saturday, August 22, 2026, at 8:00 PM and concludes on Sunday, August 23, 2026, at 2:00 AM. The activity will cause interruptions in the SAFE Cloud service. Some Business Objects (BO) reports will fail to send, or automated scripts may fail to retrieve from SAFE during this scheduled maintenance.
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Action Required

All users should logoff of the SAFE Cloud service prior to the start of the stated maintenance timeframe. Please check on your scheduled BO SAFE reports and automated FTP scripts. If needed, re-run the reports and scripts.

Contact the IBM Help Desk (800-428-8268) to report any issues with your Business Objects content in SAFE.

All SPOCs and Technical Contacts:

IBM has completed testing of Windows 11 25H2 with the CWS/CMS application. They discovered no issues and are now supporting this version of Windows. The officially supported versions of Windows are now:

• Windows 11 25H2 (supported through October 10, 2028)
• Windows 11 24H2 (supported through October 12, 2027)
• Windows 11 23H2 (supported through November 10, 2026)

IBM is updating the CWS/CMS image with the latest patches which will be distributed soon for Dedicated Counties that request it. Dedicated Counties may request the image by submitting an IBM Help Desk ticket at 800-428-8268.

Action Required

Counties need to update all of their CWS/CMS workstations to a supported version.

All SPOCs and Technical Contacts:

August 6, 2026 UPDATE: An additional issue has been identified as a result of Release R9.8 that required corrective action. The CWDS Office and IBM have created release R9.8.2 to provide fixes and / or updates for these items. There is no outage associated with this release.

The R9.8.2 MSI file will be available in the “R982” staging folder later this evening. Counties may deploy the release as soon as they have received the MSI file.

R9.8.2 is an optional release for Co-Existent Counties; however, deployment of the R9.8.2 code is strongly recommended.

R9.8.2 Release Highlights

IN10026262 – Referral Completion Due Date Issue

• Some scenarios are affecting the Completion Due Date displayed on the Referral Summary page in CWS/CMS.
• Expected Behavior is the due date should be calculated as the earlier of:
  • 30 days from the first completed, in-person investigation contact that includes the Referral Victim with the Start Date counted as Day 1; or
  • 40 days from the Referral Received Date, with the Referral Received Date counted as Day 1.
• However, the system is currently calculating the due date as 30 days from the first contact entered that includes the referral victim, regardless of Contact Purpose (Investigate Referral, Conduct Client Evaluation, etc.) or Contact Status (Attempted, Completed, etc.) or Contact Method (In person, Telephone, etc.).
• This issue does not prevent workers from completing their work. However, the due date displayed on the Referral Summary page may be inaccurate. The system continues to calculate the 40-day maximum timeframe as expected.

Action Required

Co-Existent Counties

Distribute the release through the normal county process. Since R9.8.2 is an optional release, Co-Existent Counties can plan to deploy the update when it is most convenient for them once they have received the MSI file.

Dedicated Counties

IBM will distribute the MSI file to the Dedicated Counties on Thursday, August 6, 2026. Release 9.8.2 will be installed automatically via the normal release deployment process.

For best results the users should do the following on Friday, August 7, 2026:

• Reboot the workstation and log into Windows at least once to receive the Release 9.8.2 installer.
• If prompted, select “Take All Actions” (the prompt will not occur while CWS/CMS is running);
  or
• When leaving the office at the end of that day, reboot the workstation again, but do not log into Windows.
• Leave the workstation powered on so that automatic installation can occur overnight.

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.

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Following the deployment of Release R9.8, two issues were identified that required corrective action. In addition, an update to the JV-415 form has been included to incorporate the latest version released by the Judicial Council. The CWDS Office and IBM has created a hot-fix release, R9.8.1, to provide fixes and / or updates for these items. There is no outage associated with this release.

The R9.8.1 MSI file is now available in the “R981” staging folder. Counties may deploy the release as soon as they have received the MSI file.

R9.8.1 is an optional release for Co-Existent Counties; however, deployment of the R9.8.1 code is strongly recommended.

R9.8.1 Release Highlights

IN10025562 - Case Closure Approval Issue

• R9.8 introduced a new requirement that the focus child's ICWA Eligibility value cannot be "Not Asked" when ending a Case. As an unintended consequence, 235 Cases that were already in Pending Approval status when R9.8 was deployed could no longer be approved.
• Resolution: R9.8.1 restores the ability to approve the affected Case Closure requests while maintaining the new requirement for Cases submitted after the R9.8 release.

IN10025575 - Process Placement Home Move (PPHM) Issue

• An issue introduced with R9.8 prevented users from running the Process Placement Home Move (PPHM) function.
• Resolution: R9.8.1 resolves the issue and restores normal PPHM processing functionality.

IN10025759 – JV-415 Form Update

• The recent forms release included the January 1, 2026 version of form JV-415. The July 1, 2026 version became available after release development activities were completed.
• Resolution: R9.8.1 updates JV-415 to the July 1, 2026 version.

Action Required

Co-Existent Counties

Distribute the release through the normal county process. Since R9.8.1 is an optional release, Co-Existent Counties can plan to deploy the update when it is most convenient for them once they have received the MSI file.

Dedicated Counties

IBM distributed the MSI file to the Dedicated Counties on Monday, July 20, 2026. Release 9.8.1 will be installed automatically via the normal release deployment process.

For best results the users should do the following on Tuesday, July 21, 2026:

• Reboot the workstation and log into Windows at least once to receive the Release 9.8.1 installer.
• If prompted, select “Take All Actions” (the prompt will not occur while CWS/CMS is running);
  or
• When leaving the office at the end of that day, reboot the workstation again, but do not log into Windows.
  • Leave the workstation powered on so that automatic installation can occur overnight.

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.

All SPOCs, Technical Contacts and CAD/Business Objects contacts

The CWDS Infrastructure team have scheduled the SSL Certificate update on the CAD/Business Objects (BO) servers. https://cwscadweb.int.osi.ca.gov  The upgrade window is scheduled for Wednesday, 08/05/2026 beginning at 07:00 PM and concluding at 8:00 PM.

CAD Business Objects (BO) / Business Intelligence (BI) will not be accessible during the scheduled upgrade window. Any BO reports scheduled to run during this timeframe will be affected.

Action Required

Review scheduled BO reports and reschedule report jobs to avoid the scheduled maintenance window. Rerun the missed report jobs, if necessary.

Contact the IBM Help Desk (800-428-8268) to report any issues with your Business Objects content.

All SPOCs and Technical Contacts in Sutter County:

The California Department of Technology (CDT) has scheduled maintenance on Wednesday, August 5, 2026, beginning at 12:00 AM (Midnight) and concluding at 6:00 AM. Users at the listed site will experience downtime within the 6 hour window during the AT&T maintenance window.

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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 CWDS Service Desk during normal business hours. You may also email after hours, and a Service Desk representative will contact you the next business day.

All SPOCs and Technical Contacts:

This issue in SCR 8993 in some scenarios is  affecting the Completion Due Date displayed on the Referral Summary page in CWS/CMS.

Expected Behavior is the due date should be calculated as the earlier of:

• 30 days from the first completed, in-person investigation contact that includes the Referral Victim with the Start Date counted as Day 1,

or

• 40 days from the Referral Received Date, with the Referral Received Date counted as Day 1.

However, the system is currently calculating the due date as 30 days from the first contact entered that includes the referral victim, regardless of Contact Purpose (Investigate Referral, Conduct Client Evaluation, etc.) or Contact Status (Attempted, Completed, etc.) or Contact Method (In person, Telephone, etc.).

This issue does not prevent workers from completing their work. However, the due date displayed on the Referral Summary page may be inaccurate. The system continues to calculate the 40-day maximum timeframe as expected.

The issue is currently being evaluated. Updates on next steps will be provided in a future communication.

Action Required:

We request that all CWS/CMS SPOCs and Technical Contacts distribute this communication to all staff impacted, at their discretion.

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.

To: Co-Existent County SPOCs and Technical Contacts:

June 30, 2026 UPDATE: Issue Summary: Microsoft Word Documents Failing to Open in CWS/CMS

Issue: In certain scenarios, Microsoft Word documents would not open when accessed through the CWS/CMS application.

Root Cause Analysis (RCA)
During routine patch validation testing, it was identified that several Microsoft June security updates introduced a compatibility issue affecting the CWS/CMS application. As a result, Microsoft Word documents could fail to open under specific conditions.

The following June updates were determined to be the cause of the issue:

• Windows 11 23H2 – KB5093998
• Windows 11 24H2 – KB5094126
• Windows 11 25H2 – KB5094126
• Windows Server 2016 (1607) – KB5094122

Action Taken
The issue was escalated to Microsoft for investigation. Microsoft confirmed that multiple customers were experiencing the same behavior and advised that a correction would be included in a future Windows update.

Resolution
Microsoft has since released the July security updates, which include the fix for this issue. Validation testing has been completed, and the problem was no longer reproducible after installation of the July updates.

The following supported CWS/CMS operating systems and updates were successfully tested:

• Windows 11 23H2 – KB5099414 (July 2026 Patch Tuesday Release)
• Windows 11 24H2 – KB5101650 (July 2026 Patch Tuesday Release)
• Windows 11 25H2 – KB5101650 (July 2026 Patch Tuesday Release)
• Windows Server 2016 (1607 LTSB) – KB5099535 (July 2026 Patch Tuesday Release)

Action Required

To resolve this issue and maintain compliance with Microsoft's security update recommendations, ensure that the applicable July updates listed above are installed on all CWS/CMS-supported systems as part of the standard patch management process.

Note: Systems that have not yet received the July updates may continue to experience the Microsoft Word document launch issue if the affected June updates are installed.

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June 19, 2026 UPDATE: Microsoft has not yet provided a permanent fix for the issue with KB5094126 (for Windows 11 v24H2 and v25H2) that is causing a 29956 error message when generating Word documents in CWS/CMS. IBM continues to strongly recommend that Co-Existent Counties do not install this patch on their CWS/CMS workstations, and if the patch is already installed to uninstall it until the permanent fix is produced. There is no estimated timeline for this fix, but we will send out an update once it is received and tested.

While testing the patches, IBM recently discovered an issue with another patch included in the June Microsoft patches. Patch #KB5093998 (for Windows 11 v23H2) is also causing the same 29956 error message when generating Word documents in CWS/CMS. IBM, again, strongly recommends that Co-Existent Counties do not install this patch on their CWS/CMS workstations, and if the patch is already installed to uninstall it until the permanent fix is produced. There is no estimated timeline for this additional fix, but we will send out an update once it is received and tested.

The following are the Microsoft patches that IBM is installing on the Dedicated County workstations for June 2026:

• .NET Desktop Runtime (x64) 8.0.28 Available
• .NET Desktop Runtime (x64) 9.0.17 Available
• .NET SDK (x64) 8.0.422 Available
• .NET Desktop Runtime 8.0.28 Available
• Adobe Acrobat 2026.001.21662 Available - Adobe Acrobat - Continuous Track (x64)
• Adobe Acrobat Reader 2026.001.21662 Available - Adobe Acrobat Reader - Continuous Track
• Adobe Acrobat Reader 2026.001.21662 Available - Adobe Acrobat Reader - Continuous Track (x64)
• Microsoft Edge Stable Build 149.0.4022.62 Available
• Microsoft Edge Stable Build 149.0.4022.62 Available (x64)
• MS26-JUN: Servicing Stack Update for Windows 10 Version 1607 - Windows 10 Version 1607 - KB5094141
• MS26-JUN: Servicing Stack Update for Windows 10 Version 1607 - Windows 10 Version 1607 - KB5094141 (x64)
• 5092427: Cumulative Update Preview for .NET Framework 3.5 and 4.8.1 for Windows 11, version 25H2 - Windows
• 5092427: Cumulative Update Preview for .NET Framework 3.5 and 4.8.1 for Windows 11, version 25H2 – Windows (x64)
• MS26-JUN: Security Update for Microsoft Excel 2016 - Excel 2016 - KB5002877
• MS26-JUN: Security Update for Microsoft Office 2016 - Office 2016 - KB5002578
• MS26-JUN: Security Update for Microsoft Office 2016 - Office 2016 - KB5002852
• MS26-JUN: Security Update for Microsoft Office 2016 - Office 2016 - KB5002878
• MS26-JUN: Security Update for Microsoft Word 2016 - Word 2016 - KB5002879
• Office 2024 Version 16.0.17932.20842 Available - Perpetual Channel - Office 2024 Volume Licensed
• Office 365 Version 16.0.20026.20166 Available - Monthly Enterprise Channel - Office 365 (English (United States
• Office 365 Version 16.0.20026.20168 Available - Current Channel - Office 365 (English (United States))
• Google Chrome 149.0.7827.103 Available
• 4052623: Update for Microsoft Defender antimalware platform - Microsoft Defender Antivirus - KB4052623
• Mozilla Firefox (x64) 140.11.0 ESR Available
• MS26-MAY: Cumulative Update for .NET Framework 3.5 and 4.7.2 for Windows 10 Version 1809 - Windows 10 KB5087061 (x64)
• MS26-MAY: Cumulative Update for .NET Framework 3.5 and 4.8 for Windows 10 Version 1809 - Windows 10 Version (x64)

Additional updates will be shared out once the permanent fixes for the problem Microsoft June patches have been distributed by Microsoft and tested by IBM.

_____________________________________________

Issue: The CWS/CMS application generates a 29956 error in certain situations when attempting to make a call to Word documents. This error prevents the user from data input as part of normal workflow processes.

Cause: Microsoft has confirmed that the issue has been caused by Microsoft’s June 2026 update (released on June 9, 2026), specifically the KB5094126 installation on Windows 11 desktops. Microsoft has confirmed this issue is present for multiple customers.

Workaround Solution: A temporary workaround from Microsoft is to uninstall KB5094126 on impacted systems. A permanent fix is expected to be released by Microsoft within the next few days.

Note: This issue and workaround does not apply to the Dedicated County workstations. The June 2026 Microsoft patch KB5094126 was not yet installed on the Dedicated County workstations.

Action Required

Co-Existent Counties that installed the June 2026 updates from Microsoft should, as a temporary workaround, uninstall patch KB5094126 from their workstations, until Microsoft provides a permanent fix.

All SPOCs and Technical Contacts:

Following the deployment of Release R9.8, two issues were identified that required corrective action. In addition, an update to the JV-415 form has been included to incorporate the latest version released by the Judicial Council. The CWDS Office and IBM has created a hot-fix release, R9.8.1, to provide fixes and / or updates for these items. There is no outage associated with this release.

The R9.8.1 MSI file is now available in the “R981” staging folder. Counties may deploy the release as soon as they have received the MSI file.

R9.8.1 is an optional release for Co-Existent Counties; however, deployment of the R9.8.1 code is strongly recommended.

R9.8.1 Release Highlights

IN10025562 - Case Closure Approval Issue

• R9.8 introduced a new requirement that the focus child's ICWA Eligibility value cannot be "Not Asked" when ending a Case. As an unintended consequence, 235 Cases that were already in Pending Approval status when R9.8 was deployed could no longer be approved.
• Resolution: R9.8.1 restores the ability to approve the affected Case Closure requests while maintaining the new requirement for Cases submitted after the R9.8 release.

IN10025575 - Process Placement Home Move (PPHM) Issue

• An issue introduced with R9.8 prevented users from running the Process Placement Home Move (PPHM) function.
• Resolution: R9.8.1 resolves the issue and restores normal PPHM processing functionality.

IN10025759 – JV-415 Form Update

• The recent forms release included the January 1, 2026 version of form JV-415. The July 1, 2026 version became available after release development activities were completed.
• Resolution: R9.8.1 updates JV-415 to the July 1, 2026 version.

Action Required

Co-Existent Counties

Distribute the release through the normal county process. Since R9.8.1 is an optional release, Co-Existent Counties can plan to deploy the update when it is most convenient for them once they have received the MSI file.

Dedicated Counties

IBM distributed the MSI file to the Dedicated Counties on Monday, July 20, 2026. Release 9.8.1 will be installed automatically via the normal release deployment process.

For best results the users should do the following on Tuesday, July 21, 2026:

• Reboot the workstation and log into Windows at least once to receive the Release 9.8.1 installer.
• If prompted, select “Take All Actions” (the prompt will not occur while CWS/CMS is running);

or

• When leaving the office at the end of that day, reboot the workstation again, but do not log into Windows.

• Leave the workstation powered on so that automatic installation can occur overnight.

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.