CWS/CMS

CWS/CMS: End-date of Inactive CWS/CMS User Logins for CWS-CARES Readiness – UPDATE

All SPOCs and Technical Contacts:

May 7, 2026 UPDATE: The automated process to end‑date inactive CWS/CMS user logins continues in May. The new reports were generated and saved to SAFE on Thursday, May 7, 2026. The SAFE file is titled, “SCR9039_END-DATE_USERID_2026-05-07.xlsx.” REMINDER: this is the first month will list CWS/CMS user accounts that have been inactive for the previous 90 days.

Please review your organization’s report, saved in the SAFE folder. Organizations that do not have any potential accounts to end‑date in their report will, instead, find the following statement, “NO ROWS FOR DATA QUALITY CLEANSE”.

If needed, up to ten (10) listed accounts may be requested to be excluded from the automated end‑date process. Please submit your exclusion file by Thursday, May 21, 2026, at 5:00 PM, to request listed user logins from being end-dated when the process runs on Saturday, May 23, 2026. If more than ten (10) user logins are needed to be excluded, please send your justification to the CWDS Customer Relations mailbox (CWS_CustRel@otsi.ca.gov). The justification will be forwarded to the review team for consideration. No action is required if your county agrees with the list as provided.

As stated in the attached SCR 9039 FAQ document, CWS/CMS User IDs that need to be reactivated following the automated end‑date process can be accomplished by contacting the IBM Help Desk at 800-428-8268. Please note that the process to reactive the accounts is complex and does take one or two weeks to be completed by the IBM team. However, in order to expedite this timeline, it is important when calling in the ticket to explain the reason the user ID login was end dated was due to SCR 9039. User accounts from the reports that are logged in prior to Friday, May 22, 2026, at 5:00 PM, will not be end‑dated in the automated process on May 23, 2026.

All User ID accounts, both active and inactive, will be migrated to CWS-CARES. End-dated User ID accounts that need to be reactivated in CWS-CARES can be completed by the Administrators within CWS-CARES. This process will be much more direct and easier to complete in CWS-CARES than it is currently accomplished in CWS/CMS.

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April 7, 2026 UPDATE: After a one-month hiatus for March, the automated process to end‑date inactive CWS/CMS user logins has resumed for April. The new reports were generated and saved to SAFE on Tuesday, April 7, 2026. The SAFE file is titled, “SCR9039_END-DATE_USERID_2026-04-07.xlsx.” REMINDER: this is the final month that the report will list CWS/CMS user accounts that have been inactive for the previous 180 days. Beginning in May, the reports will list accounts that have been inactive for 90 days.

Please review your organization’s report, saved in the SAFE folder. Organizations that do not have any potential accounts to end‑date in their report will, instead, find the following statement, “NO ROWS FOR DATA QUALITY CLEANSE”.

If needed, up to ten (10) listed accounts may be requested to be excluded from the automated end‑date process. Only a few organizations currently have more than ten (10) accounts listed. Please submit your exclusion file by Thursday, April 23, 2026, at 5:00 PM, to request listed user logins from being end-dated when the process runs on Saturday, April 25, 2026. If more than ten (10) user logins are needed to be excluded, please send your justification to the CWDS Customer Relations mailbox (CWS_CustRel@otsi.ca.gov). The justification will be forwarded to the review team for consideration. No action is required if your county agrees with the list as provided.

As stated in the attached SCR 9039 FAQ document, CWS/CMS User IDs that need to be reactivated following the automated end‑date process can be accomplished by contacting the IBM Help Desk at 800-428-8268. Please note that the process to reactive the accounts is complex and does take one or two weeks to be completed by the IBM team. User accounts from the reports that are logged in prior to Friday, April 24, 2026, at 5:00 PM, will not be end‑dated in the automated process on April 25, 2026.

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March 5, 2026 UPDATE: The CWDS Project has decided to not run the automated process to end-date inactive CWS/CMS user logins during March. The monthly process will resume in April. The next reports will be sent to the SAFE folder approximately April 7, 2026.

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February 18, 2026 UPDATE: This is a reminder to submit an exclusion file, if needed, by Thursday, February 19, 2026, at 5:00 PM to prevent up to ten (10) user logins from being end-dated. No action is required if your county agrees with the list as provided.

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February 11, 2026 UPDATE:  As presented at the February 10, 2026 Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) Meeting, we are sharing the updated SCR 9039 FAQ document for your reference.   

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February 6, 2026 UPDATE: Based on received feedback, the reports are being updated for the following criteria:

Report criteria:

Identifies CWS/CMS user logins that have not been used in the past 180 days 

However, users are omitted from the report if they fall into one of these two categories:

  1. Have NOT logged into CWS/CMS within the previous 180 days, but HAVE logged into CARES-Live within the previous 180 days.
  2. The User ID has been created within the previous 90 days, and has NOT logged into CWS/CMS.

Updated reports, using the new criteria listed above, will be made available in SAFE in the FromOSI folder no later than 5:00 PM, on Friday, February 6, 2026, titled: SCR9039_END-DATE_USERID_2026-02-06.xlsx. 

Please use this updated report when reviewing the list of user logins identified for deactivation.

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To prepare for CWS-CARES Mock Cycles and Production Simulation, the CWS-CARES Project will begin an automated process to end-date inactive CWS/CMS user logins. This effort helps ensure that only active users are set up with access in CWS-CARES. 

This process identifies CWS/CMS user logins that have not been used in the past 180 days and schedules those logins to be end-dated. This is standard account cleanup intended to reduce inactive or outdated system access as counties prepare for CWS-CARES. 

What This Means for Counties 

  • This activity affects system access only. There are no impacts to caseloads, staff roles, office assignments, or authority. 
  • User logins associated with an active County License Case (CLC) are excluded from the report. 
  • All user accounts (active and inactive) will still be carried forward to CWS-CARES. 

County Review and Option to Exclude User Logins  

Counties will have an opportunity to review the list of user logins identified for deactivation. To accommodate staff on extended leave (such as administrative or maternity leave), counties may exclude up to 10 user logins from deactivation, if needed. 

A report will be available in SAFE in the FromOSI folder on February 2, 2026, titled: 
SCR9039_END-DATE_USERID_2026-02-02.xlsx. 

If your county wishes to exclude user logins: 

  1. Use the Excel file provided. 
  2. Keep only the rows (up to 10) for user logins you want excluded. 
  3. Do not modify the file layout or formatting. 
  4. Upload the file to SAFE in the ToOSI folder. 

If more than 10 exclusions are needed, please contact CWDS Customer Relations and include a brief explanation. 

Deadline: February 19 at 5:00 PM 
Files received after this deadline will not be accepted, and all user logins listed in the original report will be end-dated. 

Timing and Ongoing Process 

  • This first run will process and end-date User IDs on February 21, 2026. 
  • The 180-day inactivity threshold will remain in place through April 2026, giving counties additional time to review the list and adjust to new processes. 
  • Beginning May, the inactivity threshold will change to 90 days, consistent with CWS-CARES access policy and the Production Simulation environment. 
  • After February, this process will occur monthly until the transition to CWS-CARES: 
  • Reports will be posted after the first weekend of each month 
  • User logins will be deactivated during the fourth weekend of the month 
  • Counties will receive advance notice of specific dates 

Restoring a User Login 

If a user login is end-dated and later needs to be restored, counties may submit a Help Desk ticket to reinstate the existing login and associated staff access. 

Action Required 

  • Review the report of inactive CWS/CMS user logins when it becomes available in SAFE. 
  • Submit an exclusion file (if needed) by February 19 at 5:00 PM to prevent up to 10 user logins from being end-dated. 
  • No action is required if your county agrees with the list as provided. 

For questions or concerns, please contact the CWDS Customer Relations mailbox. 

CDT Service Desk Bulletin – OTech Managed Storage as a Service (StaaS) upgrade at Gold Camp - May 10, 2026 | 9AM - 12PM

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.

CWS/CMS: CDT Service Desk Bulletin - SAFE Cloud Service Scheduled Critical Maintenance

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.

 

CWS/CMS: SBC Access to CWS/CMS Warning Message - RESOLVED

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.

CWS/CMS: Remote County Testing of Release 9.8 Changes to Prepare CWS/CMS for ‘Read-Only’ Mode - REMINDER

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.

CWS/CMS Interim Release 9.6.1 – May 13, 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.

Discontinuance of the Quarterly CARES-Live Meeting

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.  

CDT Service Desk Bulletin – Windows Monthly Patching - UPDATE

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.

CWS/CMS: CDT Service Desk Bulletin – Upgrade SBCS Infrastructure Servers to Windows Server 2022

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.

 

CWS/CMS: Remote County Testing of Release 9.8 Changes to Prepare CWS/CMS for ‘Read-Only’ Mode

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.