Maintenance

All SPOCs and Data Quality Analysts:

With the CWS-CARES go-live date adjusted to December 7, 2026, there is an opportunity to schedule additional CWS/CMS data quality cleansing processes. The 2026 MERGES AND CLEANSING GANTT document shows the processes that have been added in October. This updated document is posted to the CWDS website on the Data Quality Portal. It is located under the ‘Merges’ header on the ‘Data Quality Team (DQT) Documents’ link.

Action Required

Visit the DQ Portal and review the updated data quality cleansing schedule document and the other available resources.

County Security Administrators, System Administrators, and Authorized Provisioning Leads, CARES SPOCs, Implementation Coordinators, County Leadership, Tribe Leadership, and State Leadership:

Following up on the August 31^st communication regarding generic test accounts within the CWS- CARES Prod Sim (CARES 100) environment, the CWS-CARES Project is providing specific instructions on how County Security Administrators, System Administrators, and Authorized Provisioning Leads can revoke access for any remaining generic test accounts.

Required Actions for County Administrators

1. Immediately audit your system users and identify any generic, shared, or placeholder test accounts within CARES100 (Prod Sim).
2. Revoke the user access by following the step-by-step procedures Instructions for Revoking Generic Test Accounts in CWS-CARES as posted on the CWS-CARES System Updates & Release Notes | Child Welfare Digital Services page.
3. If you encounter technical issues and are unable to revoke a generic test account in Prod Sim (CARES100), please submit a ticket through the standard Tier 2 Help Desk so the project team can assist you directly.10

Thank you for your prompt attention to ensuring our security standards and audit compliance standards are maintained. Please reach out during the Production Simulation Office Hours if you have any questions regarding proper provisioning workflows.

If you have questions, please contact the CWDS Information Security mailbox.

Action Required

Please share this communication with all staff who should be aware of these details.  County Administrators are requested to immediately audit CARES 100 (Prod Sim) for generic test accounts and revoke their access using the provided guide or submit a Tier 2 Help Desk ticket if technical issues arise.

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Security Protocols for Prod Sim Case Data

The Prod Sim environment contains converted CWS/CMS cases reflecting actual system data as of April 17, 2026. Because this includes real, sensitive Personally Identifiable Information (PII), all case information must be strictly protected or redacted.

To protect CWS-CARES case data, please follow these important security guidelines when working with our support teams:

• Redact Ticket Info: Do not send Protected Health Information (PHI), PII, or confidential case details to the Service Desk via email or ticket. Sensitive and confidential data cannot be stored in the ticketing system.
• Secure Screen Shares: During support-requested screen shares, limit attendees to essential personnel only. Recording of sensitive information is strictly prohibited.
• Consult for Tier 3 Transfers: If Tier 3 support needs sensitive data, use secure transmission methods. Contact your county Privacy Officer or the CWDS ISO if you need assistance with secure routing.

We appreciate your dedication to protecting the safety and privacy of vulnerable children and families while we work together to support your needs.

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

In preparation for CWS-CARES production go-live on December 7, 2026, user onboarding of CWS/CMS users for CWS-CARES Production environment (CARES) will begin on September 21, 2026. 

What Users Need to Know:

• Login Verification Only: From September 21, 2026, to November 20, 2026, users will login to CWS-CARES to confirm access.
• Application Access Locked: The CARES application tile will remain locked on the user dashboard. Access to CARES application will be enabled prior to go-live and a separate announcement will follow.
• No Individual User Emails: Because onboarding is statewide, individual user emails will not be sent. This notification serves to prompt all users – whether using Single Sign-On (integrated/co-existent) and or a direct account welcome email (non-integrated/dedicated) - to test their login.

CWS-CARES Production Access: Login Instructions by Type (Starting September 21, 2026):

• Non-integrated/Dedicated Counties & Organizations: Onboarded users will receive a system-generated welcome email with the subject “Welcome to CWS-CARES" from: no-reply@cares.cwds.ca.gov Users must click the activation link within seven days to set up their password and security questions.
• Integrated/Co-Existent Counties & Organizations: Users will not receive an activation email. Instead, users test access directly at this link by logging in with Single Sign-On (SSO) using their county-provided domain credentials.

Kickoff and Office Hour Meetings

Two onboarding kickoff meetings and Office Hour sessions will be conducted via Microsoft Teams Town Hall. The sessions have a maximum capacity of 10,000 attendees. American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters can be provided upon request; please contact Customer Relations at least five days in advance of the session. Onboarding sessions will be recorded.

Links to the kickoff meetings and regional office hours are available on the Production Simulation Hub. Meeting invitations will not be sent directly to individuals; counties and organizations should review the schedule and determine which sessions their staff should attend.

Available Sessions:

Onboarding Kickoff Meeting:

• Session 1: Monday, September 21, 2026 | 1:00 PM – 1:30 PM | Join via this link.
• Session 2: Wednesday, September 23, 2026 | 1:00 PM – 1:30 PM | Join via this link.

Onboarding Office Hours:

Action Requested:

   1. Log In: Access the CARES production environment.

      *SSO Users (Integrated/Co-existent): Log in using your county domain credentials.

      *Welcome Email Users (Non-integrated/Dedicated): Follow the link in your welcome email to set up your account, then log in.

   2. Verify Dashboard Access: Confirm you are automatically redirected to the main Dashboard page after logging in.

   3. Confirm Tile Access: Locate the locked CARES Application Tile on your dashboard to confirm your account is verified.

Thank you for your continued collaboration as we transition to CWS-CARES.

Please contact Customer Relations for questions.

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Security Protocols for Prod Sim Case Data

The Prod Sim environment contains converted CWS/CMS cases reflecting actual system data as of April 17, 2026. Because this includes real, sensitive Personally Identifiable Information (PII), all case information must be strictly protected or redacted.

To protect CWS-CARES case data, please follow these important security guidelines when working with our support teams:

• Redact Ticket Info: Do not send Protected Health Information (PHI), PII, or confidential case details to the Service Desk via email or ticket. Sensitive and confidential data cannot be stored in the ticketing system.
• Secure Screen Shares: During support-requested screen shares, limit attendees to essential personnel only. Recording of sensitive information is strictly prohibited.
• Consult for Tier 3 Transfers: If Tier 3 support needs sensitive data, use secure transmission methods. Contact your county Privacy Officer or the CWDS ISO if you need assistance with secure routing.

We appreciate your dedication to protecting the safety and privacy of vulnerable children and families while we work together to support your needs.

All SPOCs, Technical Contacts, and CAD Contacts:

A service on the CWS/CMS CAD BusinessObjects (BO) server did not refresh correctly last night, September 2, 2026. This was caused by a BO report being run at 12:30 AM and conflicting with the load of a CLIENT table. The data was reloaded in the CLIENT table this morning at 6:30 AM. Prior to this reload, the data was from Tuesday at midnight.

Any jobs run before 6:30 AM this morning should be checked and re-run if they accessed the CLIENT table and require yesterday's data.

Also, please check your scheduled jobs and make sure that they are not scheduled before 1:30 AM as this may interfere with the loading of data.
 

Action Required

Check your scheduled Business Objects reports this morning and verify your results. If needed, manually invoke the scheduled BO reports from last night.

Reschedule jobs to begin after 1:30 AM so that they do not interfere with data loading.

Contact the IBM Help Desk if you require more information regarding this issue.

California Department of Technology Service Desk Bulletin - CGEN Vendor Verizon Scheduled Maintenance

All SPOCs and Technical Contacts in Alpine, Del Norte, Lassen, and Trinity Counties:

The California Department of Technology (CDT) has scheduled maintenance, beginning on Friday, September 4, 2026, at 10:00 PM, and concluding on Saturday, September 5, 2026, at 5:00 AM. Users at the listed sites will experience interruptions in connectivity to CWS/CMS and CARES-Live within the scheduled Verizon maintenance window.

Remote access (e.g., Server Based Computing [SBC]) to the CWS/CMS application will not be impacted by this scheduled maintenance.
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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.

California Department of Technology Service Desk Bulletin - CGEN Vendor Verizon Scheduled Maintenance

All SPOCs and Technical Contacts in Alpine, Del Norte, Lassen, and Trinity Counties:

The California Department of Technology (CDT) has scheduled maintenance, beginning on Thursday, September 3, 2026, at 10:00 PM, and concluding on Friday, September 4, 2026, at 5:00 AM. Users at the listed sites will experience interruptions in connectivity to CWS/CMS and CARES-Live within the scheduled Verizon maintenance window.

Remote access (e.g., Server Based Computing [SBC]) to the CWS/CMS application will not be impacted by this scheduled maintenance.
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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:

The CARES-Live team has scheduled monthly Infrastructure maintenance for Thursday, August 27, 2026, from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM. During this scheduled maintenance, the CARES-Live team will deploy infrastructure updates, CANS duplicate clean-up, and security patches that are not visible to users of CARES-Live.

NOTE: Users will not be able to access the CARES-Live application during the scheduled outage.

Action Required

If users experience any issues with CARES-Live, 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 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 Pilot County RFA Implementation Coordinators and SPOCs:

The CWS-CARES team has scheduled maintenance activity for the CWS-CARES production environment for Tuesday, August 18, 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 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.