CWS/CMS

All SPOCs and Technical Contacts:

The California Department of Technology (CDT) has scheduled maintenance on Sunday, May 10, 2026, beginning at 9:00 AM and concluding at 12:00 PM. During the maintenance window, the OTech Open System Storage team will be updating the firmware on the Gold Camp STaaS NetApp Storage. There is no anticipated outage for this maintenance.

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.

ALL SPOCs, Technical Contacts and CAD Contacts:

The California Department of Technology (CDT) has scheduled critical maintenance of the SAFE Cloud service. The maintenance is on Wednesday, May 6, 2026, beginning at 10:00 PM and concluding at 10:30 PM. 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.

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, Technical Contacts, and SBC Administrators:

May 5, 2026 UPDATE: In addition to the warning message issue, a second issue within the Server Based Computing (SBC) / Citrix environment was discovered. This second issue was a “High Level Problem Occurred” message. Unlike the first issue, users who encountered the second issue were blocked from proceeding access to the CWS/CMS application.

IBM worked with the California Department of Technology (CDT) and implemented a fix to resolve the “High Level Problem Occurred” last night. Users should not be encountering this issue when accessing the CWS/CMS application via SBC.

In addition, a separate fix has been implemented this morning to resolve the issue that was causing the warning message. This message should no longer appear.

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The California Department of Technology (CDT) upgraded the SBCS servers to the Windows 2022 server. This activity has caused the following warning message to appear when accessing CWS/CMS via an SBC connection:

IBM and the CWDS Office are working with the CDT on a fix, to be implemented later this week, to prevent this warning message from appearing. No action will be needed from the user once this update is made. In the meantime, users are able to connect to CWS/CMS by simply clicking the ‘OK’ button to close out the warning message.

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.

ALL SPOCs and TRAINING CONTACTS:

May 1, 2026 update: This is a reminder that the deadline to register for the R9.8 County Test Workshop (CTW) is May 19, 2026.

Additionally, we want to ensure all potential testers are aware of the database cutoff date in advance. The last day to enter data into CWS/CMS and have it included in CTW is May 12, 2026, at 5:00 p.m. Any data entered after this date and time will not be available during CTW.

Please note: if new users are participating in CTW and they have no data entered before the cutoff, they will not have any data available to test during CTW.

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The Child Welfare Digital Services (CWDS) Office is requesting county staff to participate in the Release 9.8 County Test Workshop (CTW).  Release 9.8 is scheduled for delivery to the counties on July 11, 2026.

The CTW for Release 9.8 will be conducted in a remote setting, via Server Based Computing (SBC) soft tokens.  

The deadline to register is:  May 19, 2026

Registered testers will participate in the testing of Release 9.8, which is scheduled for delivery to the counties on July 11, 2026.  CWDS is seeking a total of 15 county staff members for each of the 16 sessions (2 sessions per day, 9AM - 12PM and 1PM - 4PM). There will be no testing from 12PM - 1PM each day of CTW.   

Remote CTW sessions will be on the following dates: 

Week 1 (Read/Write Environment)

Monday, June 1, 2026 (AM or PM session)

Tuesday, June 2, 2026 (AM or PM session)

Wednesday, June 3, 2026 (AM or PM session)

Thursday, June 4, 2026 (AM or PM session)

Week 2 (Read-Only Environment)

Monday, June 8, 2026 (AM or PM session)

Tuesday, June 9, 2026 (AM or PM session)

Wednesday, June 10, 2026 (AM or PM session)

Thursday, June 11, 2026 (AM or PM session)

Participants are welcome to register for any of the sessions listed above, in half or whole day increments. Participants are recommended to register for at least one session per week. This will allow the participant to compare activities in both the usual read/write environment and the read-only environment.

The sessions will be limited to a maximum of 15 people per session.  No exceptions. 

We encourage you to submit your request for a specific session as soon as possible, but no later than close of business on May 19, 2026.  If a daily count exceeds the maximum count, Customer Relations will work with that tester to be rescheduled to another session. 

Please note that all requests must be submitted by the deadline so that the CWDS Office can finalize the needed arrangements.  Late registrations cannot be accepted.

A  Release 9.8 County Test Workshop Online Registration Form (see link below) for each potential tester must be received as soon as possible, but no later than close of business on May 19, 2026.

 Link:   Release 9.8 County Test Workshop (CTW) Registration Form

If for any reason, you cannot access the Online Registration Form, please contact Customer Relations at CWS_CustRel@otsi.ca.gov.

The CWDS Office will work with the registered participants on all the details of their CTW participation.  

SBC Soft Token Use:

Once registration has closed on May 19, 2026, Customer Relations will schedule a MS Teams meeting with testers and their County IT Contacts.  The purpose of this meeting will be to make sure that your County IT can configure your workstation with the needed software and any other required configurations.  If this cannot be accomplished, your registration in this CTW cannot be accommodated. 

System Change Requests (SCRs) included: 

• SCR 9003 - Place CWS/CMS in a Read-Only State
• SCR 8993 - Referral Completed Due Date
• SCR 8973 - ICWA Eligible Data Entry (Part A)
• SCR 9034 - R9.8 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 very helpful.  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 as well as vendor support staff.

If you have any questions regarding this recruitment, please contact: Customer Relations at CWS_CustRel@otsi.ca.gov.

Your continued support of CWDS is greatly appreciated. 

Action Required

Submit a Release 9.8 County Test Workshop Online Registration Form no later than May 19, 2026.

All SPOCs and Technical Contacts:

An interim CWS/CMS release has been scheduled to allow counties an opportunity to receive new content prior to the next release. Release 9.6.1 (R9.6.1) is an optional release and will include the following content:

• SCR 9049 – Forms Release Update #1 for 2026

The forms included in this release are:

• ICWA-010(A) Indian Child Inquiry Attachment (January 2026)
• ICWA-020        Parental Notification of Indian Status (January 2026)
• JV-320               Orders Under Welfare and Institutions Code Sections 366.24, 366.26, 727.3, 727.31 (January 2026)
• JV-410               Findings and Orders After Detention Hearing (Welf. & Inst. Code, § 319) (January 2026)
• ADOPT-200     Adoption Request (July 2025)
• ADOPT-210     Adoption Agreement (July 2025)
• ADOPT-215     Adoption Order (July 2025)
• ADOPT-230     Adoption Expenses (July 2025)

R9.6.1 will be implemented on Wednesday, May 13, 2026, beginning at 6:00 PM. This will be an optional release. Co-Existent Counties will not be required to implement this release. The content will be included in the ensuing required release, R9.8, which is planned to be implemented on July 11, 2026.

Important Dates

• Monday, May 11, 2026 – IBM stages the MSI file
• Wednesday, May 13, 2026 – Go-live at 6:00 PM

Action Required

Co-Existent Counties

Distribute the release through the normal county process. Since R9.6.1 is an optional release, Co-Existent Counties can plan to deploy the update when it is most convenient for them after the go-live, after 6:00 PM on Wednesday, May 13, 2026.

Dedicated Counties

IBM will distribute the MSI file to the Dedicated Counties on Monday, May 11, 2026. Release 9.6.1 will be installed automatically via the normal release deployment process by IBM at 6:00 PM on Wednesday, May 13, 2026.

For best results the users should do the following on Tuesday, May 12, 2026:

• Reboot the workstation and log into Windows at least once to receive the Release 9.6.1 installer.
• 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 CARES-Live Meeting Attendees:

 The CWDS Project Team previously concluded CARES‑Live releases to support the transition to CWS‑CARES; this decision was communicated to the organizations on June 30, 2025. In alignment with that decision—and following the successful deployment of the final CARES‑Live release—we proposed during the April 15, 2026 Quarterly CARES‑Live meeting, to formally discontinue these meetings after April 2026.  A poll was conducted during the meeting, allowing participants to vote on whether to discontinue or continue the quarterly meetings. The overwhelming majority voted to discontinue.

Ending the meetings will allow counties to dedicate more time to Prod Sim activities and other CARES‑related priorities.

All existing support services will remain in place and continue uninterrupted until the statewide rollout of CARES V1 is complete.

• New User onboarding processes will remain in place and continue as usual
• CARES-Live Demonstrations will continue to be provided upon request
• CANS Duplicate Assessment Clean-up will continue to be processed on a semi-annual basis
• CARES-Live Usage/Metric reports will continue to be made available
• CWDS Service Desk will remain available and will continue to track, review and coordinate with the technical teams on SNOW tickets submitted by CARES-Live users until the statewide rollout of CARES V1is complete
• Customer Relations will remain available to address county questions at CWS_CustRel@otsi.ca.gov

Action Required

No Action Required - Effective immediately, the Quarterly CARES Live meetings will be discontinued, and the session scheduled for July 2026 will not take place.  

ALL SPOCs, Technical Contacts and CAD Contacts:

April 22, 2026 UPDATE: The original communication included an error. The patching begins on Friday, May 15, 2026, at 6:00 PM instead of 8:00 PM.

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The California Department of Technology (CDT) has scheduled monthly Microsoft security patching. The patching begins on Friday, May 15, 2026, at 8:00 PM 6:00 PM and concludes on Saturday, May 16, 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.

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, Technical Contacts, and SBC Administrators:

The California Department of Technology (CDT) has scheduled an upgrade window for Saturday, May 2, 2026, beginning at 6:00 AM and concluding at 10:00 AM. During the upgrade window, SBC users may experience a brief service interruption while CDT is bringing the new Windows 2022 application servers online.

CDT advises not to use SBC to access CWS/CMS during the upgrade window as users may experience a service interruption. Also, SBC users will continue to run on the Windows 2016 application servers even after those servers are placed in maintenance mode if they are connected when the migration occurs. This migration occurs during the usual SBCS scheduled preventative 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.

ALL SPOCs and TRAINING CONTACTS:

The Child Welfare Digital Services (CWDS) Office is requesting county staff to participate in the Release 9.8 County Test Workshop (CTW).  Release 9.8 is scheduled for delivery to the counties on July 11, 2026.

The CTW for Release 9.8 will be conducted in a remote setting, via Server Based Computing (SBC) soft tokens.  

The deadline to register is:  May 19, 2026.

Registered testers will participate in the testing of Release 9.8, which is scheduled for delivery to the counties on July 11, 2026.  CWDS is seeking a total of 15 county staff members for each of the 16 sessions (2 sessions per day, 9AM - 12PM and 1PM - 4PM). There will be no testing from 12PM - 1PM each day of CTW.   

Remote CTW sessions will be on the following dates: 

Week 1 (Read/Write Environment)

Monday, June 1, 2026 (AM or PM session)

Tuesday, June 2, 2026 (AM or PM session)

Wednesday, June 3, 2026 (AM or PM session)

Thursday, June 4, 2026 (AM or PM session)

Week 2 (Read-Only Environment)

Monday, June 8, 2026 (AM or PM session)

Tuesday, June 9, 2026 (AM or PM session)

Wednesday, June 10, 2026 (AM or PM session)

Thursday, June 11, 2026 (AM or PM session)

Participants are welcome to register for any of the sessions listed above, in half or whole day increments. Participants are recommended to register for at least one session per week. This will allow the participant to compare activities in both the usual read/write environment and the read-only environment.

The sessions will be limited to a maximum of 15 people per session.  No exceptions. 

We encourage you to submit your request for a specific session as soon as possible, but no later than close of business on May 19, 2026.  If a daily count exceeds the maximum count, Customer Relations will work with that tester to be rescheduled to another session. 

Please note that all requests must be submitted by the deadline so that the CWDS Office can finalize the needed arrangements. Late registrations cannot be accepted.

A  Release 9.8 County Test Workshop Online Registration Form (see link below) for each potential tester must be received as soon as possible, but no later than close of business on May 19, 2026.

 Link:  Release 9.8 County Test Workshop (CTW) Registration Form

If for any reason, you cannot access the Online Registration Form, please contact Andrea Johnson-Kumar at 916-891-3143 or via email at Andrea.Johnson-Kumar@otsi.ca.gov or Customer Relations at CWS_CustRel@otsi.ca.gov.

The CWDS Office will work with the registered participants on all the details of their CTW participation.  

SBC Soft Token Use:

Once registration has closed on May 19, 2026, Customer Relations will schedule a MS Teams meeting with testers and their County IT Contacts.  The purpose of this meeting will be to make sure that your County IT can configure your workstation with the needed software and any other required configurations.  If this cannot be accomplished, your registration in this CTW cannot be accommodated. 

System Change Requests (SCRs) included: 

• SCR 9003 - Place CWS/CMS in a Read-Only State
• SCR 8993 - Referral Completed Due Date
• SCR 8973 - ICWA Eligible Data Entry (Part A)
• SCR 9034 - R9.8 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 very helpful.  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 as well as vendor support staff.

If you have any questions regarding this recruitment, please contact:  Andrea Johnson-Kumar at 916-891-3143 or via email at Andrea.Johnson-Kumar@otsi.ca.gov or Customer Relations at CWS_CustRel@otsi.ca.gov.

Your continued support of CWDS is greatly appreciated. 

Action Required

Submit a Release 9.8 County Test Workshop Online Registration Form no later than May 19, 2026.

All SPOCs, Technical Contacts, and SBC Administrators:

The California Department of Technology (CDT) has scheduled maintenance on Saturday, April 25, 2026, 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.