CWS-CARES RFA

All Pilot County RFA Implementation Coordinators and SPOCs:

The CWS-CARES team has scheduled maintenance activity for the CWS-CARES production environment for Thursday, August 20, 2026, beginning at 5:00 PM and concluding at 7:00 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 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 CARES-Live and CARES-RFA County Administrators:

The ServiceNow (SNOW) Customer Service Management (CSM) Portal User Interface for CARES County Admins will be updated to include added columns when viewing all open tickets. Please see the screenshot of the ‘Before’ and ‘After’ required ticket information.

Before

After

Today, Friday, August 7, 2026, beginning at 5:00 PM and concluding at 6:00 PM, the CWDS ServiceNow CSM portal will not be available while the portal update occurs. Please complete your work and log off the CWDS ServiceNow portal today by 5:00 PM.

Action Required

If users experience any issues with the CWDS CSM Portal URL, please contact the CARES Service Desk through the CWDS ServiceNow Customer Support Management (CSM) Portal (if able to log in). 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 Pilot County RFA Implementation Coordinators and SPOCs:

The CWS-CARES team has scheduled maintenance activity for the CWS-CARES production environment for Sunday, August 2, 2026, beginning at 9:00 PM and concluding at 11:59 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. However, document related functionality 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 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: 

March 16, 2026 UPDATE: This is a reminder that there is a CWS-CARES RFA outage window scheduled for Thursday, March 19, 2026. Beginning at 5:00 PM and concluding at 8:00 PM, the RFA Greenfield production environment will be unavailable while it transitions to a secure FedRAMP (Okta) environment.

After the transition activities, users should clear their web browser cache before logging in to the Okta RFA Greenfield production environment. For guidance on how to clear the web browser cache for Chrome or Edge, please follow the steps provided here: Clear cache & cookies - Computer - Google Account Help

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Over the past half-year, we have actively coordinated and worked with the various stakeholder organizations to perform the transition to a secure FedRAMP IAM (Okta) environment, which has been completed and operational in the CWS-CARES non-production environment. Now, we are ready to perform this transition for the current CWS-CARES RFA Greenfield production environment.

As some of the cutover activities require coordination with stakeholder organizations, we will be requesting for your IT team’s support to execute specific tasks on your systems. A separate communication addressed to the designated SPOC and technical representative will specify the required actions and schedule, which will be provided closer to the transition date.

We recently engaged with your organization during a preliminary meeting and discussed timeline, availability, and outcomes of this transition. During that discussion, no concerns were raised from your organization if we conduct the transition activities in the upcoming weeks.

The date for this transition cutover from non-FedRAMP to FedRAMP IAM environment is scheduled for Thursday, March 19, 2026, from 5:00 PM to 8:00 PM. During this time, the RFA Greenfield production environment will be unavailable.

Action Required

After the transition activities, users should clear their web browser cache before logging in to the Okta RFA Greenfield production environment. For guidance on how to clear the web browser cache for Chrome or Edge, please follow the steps provided here: Clear cache & cookies - Computer - Google Account Help

All SPOCs and Technical Contacts: 

Over the past half-year, we have actively coordinated and worked with the various stakeholder organizations to perform the transition to a secure FedRAMP IAM (Okta) environment, which has been completed and operational in the CWS-CARES non-production environment. Now, we are ready to perform this transition for the current CWS-CARES RFA Greenfield production environment.

 As some of the cutover activities require coordination with stakeholder organizations, we will be requesting for your IT team’s support to execute specific tasks on your systems. A separate communication addressed to the designated SPOC and technical representative will specify the required actions and schedule, which will be provided closer to the transition date.

 We recently engaged with your organization during a preliminary meeting and discussed timeline, availability, and outcomes of this transition. During that discussion, no concerns were raised from your organization if we conduct the transition activities in the upcoming weeks.

The date for this transition cutover from non-FedRAMP to FedRAMP IAM environment is scheduled for Thursday, March 19, 2026, from 5:00 PM to 8:00 PM. During this time, the RFA Greenfield production environment will be unavailable.

Action Required

After the transition activities, users should clear their web browser cache before logging in to the Okta RFA Greenfield production environment. For guidance on how to clear the web browser cache for Chrome or Edge, please follow the steps provided here: Clear cache & cookies - Computer - Google Account Help

All Pilot County RFA Implementation Coordinators and SPOCs:

The CWS-CARES team has scheduled maintenance activity for the CWS-CARES production environment for Tuesday, December 16, 2025, beginning at 6:00 AM and concluding at 8:00 AM. 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, document related functionality 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.  

All SPOCs and Technical Contacts:

EFFECTIVE December 15, 2025, CWS-CARES Interim RELEASE 0.17.1 PRODUCTION RELEASE IS PLANNED TO MOVE INTO PRODUCTION

The CWS-CARES team has scheduled release activity that will interrupt connectivity to the CWS-CARES Resource Family Approval (RFA) Application Submission, Review, and Approval Process for pilot counties Fresno, Placer, and Santa Clara. The release activity is planned to begin at 5:00 PM on December 15, 2025, and conclude at 6:30 PM. During this scheduled outage, users in pilot counties will not be able to access the CARES RFA application.

CWS-CARES Release 0.17.1:

The purpose of this release is to primarily deliver fixes for known issues, enhancements to behind-the-scenes functionality and security improvements to CWS-CARES Resource Family Approval (RFA) Application Submission, Review, and Approval Process.

CWDS is excited to share the new RFA features that are planned to be available following the implementation of CWS-CARES Release 0.17.1 on December 15, 2025, to the CARES-RFA Pilot County users. These new features are derived from user feedback as well as project planned enhancements.

RFA Application Process:

The RFA Application process is the Receipt, Record, Submission, and Assignment of an Application. The RFA Application process was selected as the first software build for CARES. CARES will ultimately replace the legacy Child Welfare System CWS/CMS. The RFA Application Process will operate in a totally new Production Environment without integrating with other legacy systems, such as the CWS/CMS and CARES-Live applications.

RFA Application Process Features:

• Allows an applicant or County staff member to initiate an emergency or standard application to become a resource family home
• Creates a facility profile that tracks required information to complete this process, including background check results, completion of orientation and training hours, physical home assessment, and family evaluation
• Aggregates information into a report to recommend approval or disapproval of a resource family application

Action Required

RFA Pilot County users review new features in the CWS-CARES Production Environment after December 16, 2025.

All prior Release Notes can be found here: RFA Application Process Release Notes and Interim Processes

All CARES-Live and CARES-RFA County Administrators:

REMINDER: The CWDS CSM Portal hosted by ServiceNow will be migrating to a secure FedRAMP-compliant data center. As a result of this migration, the CWDS CSM Portal URL will change. This migration will specifically affect the CARES-Live and CARES-RFA administrators who currently use the portal. After the migration, administrators should continue to submit tickets for CARES-Live and CARES-RFA at the new URL.

What FedRAMP compliance means:

FedRAMP is a U.S. government security standard that ensures cloud services meet strict controls for protecting data, access, logging, encryption, and incident response.

Why this matters:

This migration enhances the portal’s security and reliability, reduces the risk of unauthorized access or data loss, and aligns the service with federal standards for handling sensitive information.

Migration Details:

• Date: December 10, 2025
• Time: 12/10/25 6:00PM to 12/11/25 8:00AM
• Downtime: The CWDS CSM Portal will not be accessible during the migration window.

After the migration, the current URL, https://cwds.service-now.com/csm, will redirect users to the new portal location until January 10, 2026. Please note that the current CWDS CSM Portal URL will be completely decommissioned on January 11, 2026.

New URL:  https://cwds.servicenowservices.com/csm

Action Required

Please update all URL bookmarks or references to the new link after the migration date above.

If users experience any issues with the CWDS CSM Portal URL after the migration window, please contact the CARES Service Desk through the CWDS ServiceNow Customer Support Management (CSM) Portal (if able to log in). 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.

All CARES-Live and CARES-RFA County Administrators:

The CWDS CSM Portal hosted by ServiceNow will be migrating to a secure FedRAMP-compliant data center. As a result of this migration, the CWDS CSM Portal URL will change. This migration will specifically affect the CARES-Live and CARES-RFA administrators who currently use the portal. After the migration, administrators should continue to submit tickets for CARES-Live and CARES-RFA at the new URL.

What FedRAMP compliance means:

FedRAMP is a U.S. government security standard that ensures cloud services meet strict controls for protecting data, access, logging, encryption, and incident response.

Why this matters:

This migration enhances the portal’s security and reliability, reduces the risk of unauthorized access or data loss, and aligns the service with federal standards for handling sensitive information.

Migration Details:

• Date: December 10, 2025
• Time: 12/10/25 6:00PM to 12/11/25 8:00AM
• Downtime: The CWDS CSM Portal will not be accessible during the migration window.

After the migration, the current URL, https://cwds.service-now.com/csm, will redirect users to the new portal location until January 10, 2026. Please note that the current CWDS CSM Portal URL will be completely decommissioned on January 11, 2026. 

New URL:
https://cwds.servicenowservices.com/csm

Action Required

Please update all URL bookmarks or references to the new link after the migration date above.

If users experience any issues with the CWDS CSM Portal URL after the migration window, please contact the CARES Service Desk through the CWDS ServiceNow Customer Support Management (CSM) Portal (if able to log in). 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.

• The stories in the backlog will be assessed and the needed stories will be moved to the CARES V1 project for future consideration;
• All other remaining stories will be marked with the status: “Closed – Will not do”;
• This will help ensure better alignment with CARES V1 and avoid duplicating work;
• Additionally, it will provide a stable, unchanging environment to support data conversion activities.