CWS-CARES

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.  

CARES SPOCs, Implementation Coordinators, OCM Coordinators, County Leadership, Tribe Leadership, Probation Leadership, and State Leadership:

In this Weekly Digest (click the link for more information): 

• CWS-CARES Progress and Engagement Summary: November 
• Reminder: Product Demonstrations Now Available on the CWDS Website 

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CWS-CARES Progress and Engagement Summary: November 

The November Progress and Engagement Summary is now available on the CWDS website. Each monthly summary includes the following data from the previous month: 

• Participation rates for key meetings 
• A list of product demos and topics covered, by date 
• Updates from teams across the Project   

We encourage you to review and share the November CWS-CARES Progress and Engagement Summary with your teams. 

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Reminder: Product Demonstrations Now Available on the CWDS Website 

Core Constituent Demonstrations are now available to view on the new Product Demonstrations Page on the CWDS Website. Access requires logging in with your organization’s email address. 

Core Constituent Demonstration meetings will be scheduled at least two weeks in advance of the session with clear agendas in the invitations. Changes to the agenda will be communicated at least two days prior to the session. 

These updates are a direct result of your feedback to enhance the process of accessing Core Constituent Demonstrations. Thank you for your continued partnership! 

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Share Your Feedback and Subscribe 

Thank you for following our progress! Share your feedback on this CWS-CARES Weekly Digest here: CWS-CARES Weekly Digest Feedback Form. Subscribe to future issues here: CWS-CARES Weekly Digest Subscription Form.  

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Action Required

We request that all CARES Single Point of Contacts (SPOCs) and Implementation Coordinators coordinate and distribute the CARES Weekly Digest to all staff impacted by CWS-CARES, at their discretion. 

All Pilot County RFA Implementation Coordinators and SPOCs:

The CWS-CARES team has scheduled maintenance activity for the CWS-CARES production environment for Wednesday, November 19, 2025, 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 will be no outage.
 

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.

CARES SPOCs, Implementation Coordinators, OCM Coordinators, County Leadership, Tribe Leadership, Probation Leadership, and State Leadership:

In this Weekly Digest:

• Now Available: The November 2025 CARES Compass – Volume 2, Issue 6
• CWS-CARES Stakeholder Briefing #4: Materials Posted

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Now Available: The November 2025 CARES Compass – Volume 2, Issue 6

We are pleased to share the newest issue of the CARES Compass, a two-page executive summary on the CWS-CARES Project: The CARES Compass - November 2025. (For the best experience, please open the link in a Microsoft Edge browser.)

This issue features articles about:

• The future of the CARES Compass
• New resources on the CWDS website: The FCED Hub and Product Demonstrations Page
• A recap of CWS-CARES activities at key 2025 California conferences
• Upcoming communications and activities in the next 90 days

You are encouraged to share this newsletter with staff who may be interested in learning more about CWS-CARES. All of our previous issues can be found on the CWDS website: The CARES Compass and Explorer Newsletters.

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CWS-CARES Stakeholder Briefing #4: Materials Posted

On October 22, 2025, the CWS-CARES Project hosted Stakeholder Briefing #4, a two-hour webinar featuring updates from leadership, a demo of the CWS-CARES Administrative Console, and interactive Q&A.

We were pleased to have over 300 participants from 39 counties and four partner organizations join us! Feedback shows that the majority of attendees felt satisfied or very satisfied with the session.

If you were unable to attend, a recording is now available on the Stakeholder Briefings and Webinars page, along with the presentation and Q&A document.

Thank you to everyone who attended—we look forward to connecting again on January 28, 2026, for Stakeholder Briefing #5.

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Share Your Feedback and Subscribe 

Thank you for following our progress! Share your feedback on this CWS-CARES Weekly Digest here: CWS-CARES Weekly Digest Feedback Form. Subscribe to future issues here: CWS-CARES Weekly Digest Subscription Form.  

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Action Required

We request that all CARES Single Point of Contacts (SPOCs) and Implementation Coordinators coordinate and distribute the CARES Weekly Digest to all staff impacted by CWS-CARES, at their discretion. 

All Pilot County RFA Implementation Coordinators and SPOCs:

November 12, 2025 UPDATE: Correction. This maintenance is scheduled for Friday, November 14, 2025; not on Wednesday.

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The CWS-CARES team has scheduled maintenance activity for the CWS-CARES production environment for Wednesday Friday, November 14, 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 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.

All Pilot County RFA Implementation Coordinators and SPOCs:

The CWS-CARES team has scheduled maintenance activity for the CWS-CARES production environment for Wednesday, November 12, 2025, beginning at 5:00 PM and concluding at 9:00 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.

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.

CARES SPOCs, Implementation Coordinators, OCM Coordinators, County Leadership, Tribe Leadership, Probation Leadership, and State Leadership:

CWDS Website Update: The FCED Hub 

We are excited to introduce the FCED Hub, a new page on the CWDS website for the latest information and resources on Foster Care Eligibility and Determination (FCED). Explore eligibility demonstrations, Governance Committee meeting materials, and other helpful resources — now all in one convenient location.  

To access the hub, visit the CWDS Portals page, select FCED Hub, and log in using your county email address. 

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Recap: First Biweekly Binti Data Conversion Meeting on Thursday, October 30 

The first biweekly External Systems Data Conversion meeting for Binti counties was held on Thursday, October 30, 2025 from 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM. 105 participants joined the session across the 43 Binti counties. Thank you to everyone who participated! 

The meeting recording has been posted to the External Systems Portal; the presentation and Q&A document will be available in the coming weeks. Join us November 13, 2025 from 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM.  for the next Binti Data Conversion session. 

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Share Your Feedback and Subscribe 

Thank you for following our progress! Share your feedback on this CWS-CARES Weekly Digest here: CWS-CARES Weekly Digest Feedback Form. Subscribe to future issues here: CWS-CARES Weekly Digest Subscription Form.   

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Action Required

We request that all CARES Single Point of Contacts (SPOCs) and Implementation Coordinators coordinate and distribute the CARES Weekly Digest to all staff impacted by CWS-CARES, at their discretion. 

This communication is a follow-up to the October 17, 2025, correspondence on the status of the CWS-CARES Project's Advance Planning Document Update (APDU), specific implementation activities, and the resulting impacts of the ongoing federal shutdown. 

The federal shutdown has impacted the submission and subsequent approval of the CWS-CARES APDU by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF). The absence of approved federal funding necessitates a suspension of specific implementation activities. Formally approved funding is a prerequisite for executing any CWS-CARES service contracts or contract amendments. To ensure fiscal prudence and preserve existing funding, most implementation activities will be temporarily paused effective November 3, 2025. All other implementation activities not explicitly listed below are paused pending further guidance. 

The following key implementation activities will proceed as scheduled or with necessary adjustments: 

1. Extended User Scenario Testing (EUST) 3 Training Development and Delivery: This workstream will continue as planned. The Training Advisory Workgroup meetings will focus exclusively on EUST 3.
    
2. Process Information Sessions: These sessions will continue as planned for all of the remaining topics: Courts, Probation, Resource Family Approval (RFA), Resource Management (RM), Financial Management (FM), and Administrative Services. The OCM Advisory Workgroup meetings will focus exclusively on Process Information Session preparation. 
    
3. Organization Readiness: This activity continues with modifications. We will monitor and report Organization Readiness status to relevant leadership and organizations. However, existing monthly county Implementation Readiness Meetings will be canceled and replaced by a new series of regionally aligned group meetings, in some cases led by different facilitators and using a revised format. These meetings will be used to collect and report on Organization Readiness status to leadership and partner organizations.  

Updates on Sandbox, Process Simulation, and Pilot activities will be shared in a subsequent communication. 

Significant areas of the CWS-CARES Project are continuing without interruption including prototype and build reviews, Extended User Scenario Testing (EUST), forms, reports, data conversion and external systems activities. Your organizations should continue all work, including associated readiness activities. 

The CWS-CARES Version 1 Go-Live Date remains October 2026. 

We appreciate your understanding and continued partnership as we navigate these required adjustments. We will provide continuous updates as decisions are formalized. 

All Pilot County RFA Implementation Coordinators and SPOCs:

The CWS-CARES team has scheduled maintenance activity for the CWS-CARES production environment for Thursday, October 30, 2025, beginning at 5:00 PM and concluding at 8:00 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 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.