March 25, 2025
Communications
All SPOCs, Implementation Coordinators, and OCM Coordinators:
We are pleased to announce that the existing CWS-CARES Stakeholder Resources page has been updated to reflect publicly available resources regarding CWS-CARES.
The intent of these changes to the CWDS website is to build awareness on CWS-CARES project updates and promote user engagement. These changes will be implemented on April 8, 2025.
- The CWS-CARES Users page is currently located under the ‘Stakeholder Resources’ dropdown (note: URL for this page has not changed):
- The updated page will be organized by the type of role played by the site visitor and will include descriptions to help users more quickly navigate to what they need:
- Previously, this page was sorted by the type of system discussed. The page will now solely reflect CWS-CARES resources. All other resources will be moved to one of the following locations:
- “Follow our Progress” (part of the horizontal navigation bar at the top of the page)
- “RFA and CARES-Live Users” (part of the “Stakeholder Resources” drop down menu)
- “Technical Support” (part of the “Stakeholder Resources” drop down menu)
- In addition to these changes, the resources found on the former page titled “Project Reporting” will be moved to the following locations:
- Legislative Updates – Monthly: now visible under “Follow Our Progress”
- CWDS Planning Roadmap & Timeline: now visible under “Follow Our Progress”
- CWS-CARES Stakeholder Briefings: now on CARES User Resources | Child Welfare Digital Services
- And finally, any links that were previously found on this page will still be found at the bottom of the resources page. These links will also be available on either the Technical Support page or the CARES-Live and RFA Users pages once live, but they will be removed by May 31, 2025.
Action Required
Please reach out to Customer Relations if you have any questions.
March 17, 2025
Communications
All SPOCs, Technical Contacts, and SBC Administrators:
March 17, 2025 UPDATE: The California Department of Technology (CDT) has resolved the issue which prevented access to Server Based Computing (SBC). Counties are now reporting that they are successfully accessing SBC and are able to launch the CWS/CMS application.
Please contact the IBM Help Desk (800-428-8268) if you continue to experience any issue with accessing CWS/CMS or with SBC.
____________________________________________________________________________________
Multiple counties have reported issues with connecting to Citrix Server Based Computing (SBC). The CWDS Infrastructure Team is working with the California Department of Technology (CDT) to determine the cause and resolution for this issue.
There is currently no estimate of when the issue will be resolved. Updates will be shared as new information is received.
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.
March 14, 2025
Communications
All SPOCs, Technical Contacts, and CAD Contacts:
March 14, 2025 UPDATE: The Search indexing issue has been resolved.
________________________________________________________________________
The CWS/CMS CAD BusinessObjects (BO) server was unavailable last night, January 29, 2025. It was rebooted this morning at 10:10 AM, and the service was restored. The Search indexing caused logging issues for the DB2. Therefore, the Search indexing has been temporarily paused until the issue is resolved. Additionally, no scheduled reports were run this morning, but the scheduler is now running and will catch up soon. Therefore, you may experience some slowness. Please check in periodically for completed reports throughout the morning.
Action Required
Review scheduled BO reports today and tomorrow morning. Rerun the report jobs, as necessary.
Contact CWDS Customer Relations if you require more information regarding this issue.
February 27, 2025
Communications
To: Core Constituent Points of Contact
The feedback you have provided in our quarterly Core Constituent Surveys is driving meaningful improvement in how we communicate, collaborate, and enhance the CWS-CARES experience. We are sharing a summary of the completed and in progress actions we have taken from your feedback.
Changes Made Based on Your Feedback
- Enhanced Feedback Process: You expressed a desire for better visibility into the status of the feedback you provide and clearer communication about the feedback process.
- Improved Meeting Scheduling and Experience: You shared that meetings should be scheduled in advance, a clear view of upcoming meetings should be available for planning, and agendas should include enough detail to help determine who needs to attend and assist with scheduling.
- A standardized Core Constituent Demonstration meeting invite template now includes specific details on agenda items and scenarios.
- The CWS-CARES Meeting Calendar is published monthly to reflect a 3 month view of upcoming meetings, including Core Constituent demonstrations, implementation meetings, and key workgroups. In Spring 2025, we will transition to a real-time meeting calendar on the CWDS webpage, ensuring accurate and up-to-date scheduling.
- Core Constituent demonstrations and key meetings are now scheduled at least 1 month in advance.
- Streamlined Access to Key Information: You requested big picture updates, an updated project roadmap, functionality updates, and demonstrations comparing CWS/CMS and CWS-CARES.
- The CARES Compass: Executive Summary and CARES Explorer: Project Newsletter keep stakeholders informed about project updates, including deep dives into service areas, system functionality, and interfaces.
- The updated CWDS Planning Roadmap is now available on the CWDS webpage.
- The CARES Experiences Timeline reflects organization activities and tasks that provide experiences for direct observation or participation in CWS-CARES up to Version 1 Go-Live.
- The Stakeholder Briefings include Product demonstrations with side-by-side comparisons of CWS/CMS and CWS-CARES.
Upcoming Changes
These items are planning for release in Spring 2025 to further enhance transparency and engagement:
- A Real-Time Meeting Calendar: A new CWDS Meeting & Event Calendar will launch on the webpage, ensuring accurate, up-to-date scheduling with direct access for Core Constituents.
- Big-Picture Project Updates: A Project Progress Summary will provide updates on CWS-CARES progress, including updates on Product, External Systems and Data Conversion, User Engagement, Implementation/OCM/Training, and Project Announcements/Engagement Opportunities.
- Core Constituent Orientation Guide: This resource will provide onboarding support resources for new Core Constituents, including links to key resources.
While there is still room for improvement, we want to keep you informed on what has been accomplished and what is underway. We will continue to share updates as we implement further enhancements.
Share Your Feedback in the Next Survey
We want to continue improving based on your input, and your participation is essential. Stay tuned for a request to complete the next Core Constituent Survey in March 2025.
Action Required
Please share this information with those at your organization who need to be updated.
February 24, 2025
Communications
All SPOCs and Technical Contacts:
February 24, 2025 UPDATE: Due to a schedule conflict with another maintenance window, this CARES-Live maintenance has been rescheduled to Thursday, February 27, 2025, from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM.
Users will still not be able to access the CARES-Live application during the re-scheduled outage.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
The CARES-Live team has scheduled maintenance for the CARES-Live application. The maintenance is scheduled for Thursday, February 27, 2025, from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM. During this scheduled maintenance the CARES-Live team will focus on application maintenance changes that are not visible to CARES-Live users.
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 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.
February 14, 2025
Communications
All SPOCs and Technical Contacts:
The CWS/CMS Workstation Commercial Off the Shelf (COTS) Install Options guide has been updated to version 7.3. The date of this updated guide is February 5, 2025. IBM/Kyndryl have loaded this updated guide to the Co-Existent Counties’ shared folder (CodeDist\COTS_Software\Windows_11) If a Co-Existent County does not see the updated version in their shared folder, then review to confirm that the folder is synced to copy the files from the IBM folder. A manual sync might be needed if the automated process is not active.
In addition, the guide has also been added to the CWDS website at https://cwds.ca.gov/pages/hardware_technical_information. You can navigate to the guide by opening the ‘CWDS website’ à click the drop-down arrow next to the ‘Stakeholder Resources’ header à click on the ‘CWS/CMS User’ link à click on the ‘CWS/CMS Guides’ link listed below the “County Logon” header ( website logon is required to access this section) à click on the ‘Hardware and Technical Information’ link à click on the ‘CWS Workstation COTS Install Options v7.3’ link.
Action Required
Co-Existent Counties should review the CWS/CMS Workstation COTS Install Options guide to build their workstation image to match the settings used for the Dedicated County image.
February 14, 2025
Communications
To: Child Welfare and Probation CARES SPOCs and Child Welfare Implementation Coordinators
CC: County, Tribe, Probation, and State Leadership, and OCM Coordinators
February 14, 2025 UPDATE: We would like to notify everyone that the January 2025 Q&A (PDF) is now posted to the website. CWS-CARES Stakeholder Briefings | Child Welfare Digital Services.
_____________________________________________________________________________
February 4, 2025 UPDATE: Thank you for taking the time to attend the CWS-CARES Stakeholder Briefing #2 held on Wednesday, January 29, 2025. We were thrilled to have over 557 staff participate, representing an impressive 52 of the 58 California counties, tribal communities, as well as 13 Probation offices. Your active participation and engagement were invaluable.
For your convenience, the presentation slides and recording are now available on our website at CWS-CARES Stakeholder Briefings | Child Welfare Digital Services.
We appreciate the comments and thoughtful questions you raised. We captured over 137 questions during the session, and we will be publishing the session’s Questions & Answers document to the website in the next few weeks.
To stay up to date on the latest CWS-CARES project news, visit the CWDS website and subscribe to our project newsletters.
We value your continued partnership and look forward to seeing you at the CWS-CARES Stakeholder Briefing #3 on June 25, 2025.
If you have further questions or require additional information, please do not hesitate to contact CWDS Customer Relations.
_____________________________________________________________________________
January 27, 2025 UPDATE: If you registered for the session, you should have received an email from CalHHS Office of Technology and Solutions Integration with an Outlook calendar invitation attachment containing the Webinar link. Please note that this invitation will not automatically be added as an event on your calendar; you must open the Outlook calendar invitation attached to the previous email and accept it.
Registrations are still being accepted. To register or re-register for the session, please use this hyperlink: Register for January 29th CWS-CARES Stakeholder Briefing Session
We look forward to your participation.
_____________________________________________________________________________
We hope you found our first Stakeholder Briefing Session in June 2024 informative and useful. We’re excited to announce our Second CWS-CARES Stakeholder Briefing Session to unveil new features, foster engagement, and drive user adoption.
Date: Wednesday, January 29, 2025
Time: 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Format: Webinar
The agenda includes:
- Leadership Opening
- A Holistic Design & User Feedback Update
- Demonstrations and Feature Highlights:
- Intake & Investigations (what’s changed since the last session)
- Case Management
- The Foster Care Eligibility Determination (FCED) interface between CWS-CARES & CalSAWS
- An External Systems Update
- Implementation, OCM, & Training Updates
- Technology Updates
- Q&A
You may register for the session using the CWS-CARES Stakeholder Briefing #2 Registration page.
Registration takes less than a minute by entering your name, email, and county or organization. Once registration is complete, a meeting notice with the session information will be automatically sent to the email provided.
You may register for others or forward this email to staff that might be interested in attending the session. We encourage everyone to register by January 22, 2025.
The session will be recorded. For more information, please refer to the CWS-CARES Stakeholder Briefings page on the CWDS website which contains the session dates, past session recordings, and materials.
Action Required
You are invited to register for the CWS-CARES Stakeholder Briefing #2. We encourage registration by January 22, 2025. For additional questions, please email CWDS Customer Relations at: CWS_CustRel@otsi.ca.gov.
February 07, 2025
Communications
All SPOCs:
The CWDS Office and IBM have scheduled a patch update for the System Change Request (SCR) website. The patch window is scheduled for Wednesday, February 12, 2025, beginning at 7:00 PM and concluding at 11:00 PM. The SCR website will be unavailable for approximately one hour within the patch update window.
Action Required
No action needed.
January 27, 2025
Communications
All SPOCs, Technical Contacts and CTW Registered Testers:
To accommodate the CARES Pilot Support activities, the CWDS Executive Leadership Team has decided to postpone the CWS/CMS Release 9.6 by three months, originally scheduled for Saturday, May 17, 2025. We apologize for any inconvenience this postponement may cause.
The new CWS/CMS Release 9.6 Go-Live date is still to be determined. An update will be sent out as soon as the new release date has been finalized.
Action Required
Please look for the CTW related meeting cancellations. No other actions regarding CWS/CMS Release 9.6 are needed at this time. Release activities are on hold until the release Go-Live date has been finalized.
