Frequently Asked Questions
Data
Q: Where there is a breakdown of the 'IV-E eligible percentage' and service units, the county does not currently know which unit would fill this out at a given point in time. How will counties enter this data?
A: Units of service for FFPSA EBPs will be statewide. The expectation is that the provider of the service enters the Number of Units provided along with the coordinating Unit of Service. The provider will also document the cost of the service. This does not include administrative-related costs associated with the service. CDSS will be issuing guidance to assist counties in this process of units of service.
Q: How immediate is the data exchange between the CalSAWS/CARES interface?
A: Data will exchange as close to real-time as possible. A nightly batch occurs as a 'failsafe' if any data does not go through in near real-time.
Q: Will County Expense Claim Reporting Information System (CECRIS) be integrated with CWS-CARES?
A: Yes, in CARES V1, the CECRIS Integration will pull DFA600 data one-way from CECRIS to CWS-CARES. All CECRIS data in CWS-CARES will be read-only; users will not be able to edit/change this data in CWS-CARES.
Q: Will the transfer of data from County Expense Claim Reporting Information System (CECRIS) into CWS-CARES be after the files are audited/approved by CDSS? Will CWS-CARES also receive revised CECRIS Claims?
A: CWS-CARES will receive both the unaudited and audited Original claims approved by the state as federal reporting requires both. CWS-CARES will also receive the approved Adjustment claims. The interface data exchange with CECRIS occurs on a monthly basis. This data will be sent once CECRIS has received all prior to audit claims for each county OR when all audited claims have been approved by CDSS (i.e., when all Original claims have been approved by CDSS, all approved Original claims for each county will be sent to CWS-CARES at once).
Q: Who from the CBO will submit data in the portal? Is it a data system manager, or a case manager entering information? Will only one CBO role be doing the management and submission of records?
A: The system will have different roles such as CBO admin, CBO supervisor and CBO worker. This is based on provider feedback we received that some folks in their organization are handling only administration, and others are managing services and entering info about delivery, etc. It will be up to the county/provider to determine who is assigned what permission in the portal. Portal Administrators have additional capabilities including updating provider profile information, submitting portal access requests, etc.
Q: How will CWS-CARES get the Aid Codes for the cases?
A: Aid Codes information comes directly from CalSAWS.
Q: Is Efforts to Outcomes (ETO) a data conversion system? Will there be additional external system specific meetings for external systems like ETO?
A: No, ETO was not slated for data conversion in CWS-CARES Version 1 (CARES V1). If you have specific questions related to your county’s ETO use case, please reach out to your assigned External System Coordination Unit Analyst via the ESCU Mailbox.
Q: Will Resource Family Approval (RFA) Greenfield be treated as an external system? Who is responsible for data mapping?
A: RFA Greenfield is a State managed legacy system and is not being treated as an external system. The CWS-CARES Data Conversion team is responsible for RFA Greenfield data mapping. For RFA Greenfield specific inquiries, please reach out to the Customer Relations Mailbox.
Q: If CWS/CMS has an incomplete address and Binti data fills in the blank fields, is there a verification process to ensure the addresses are correct and should be merged?
A: The hierarchical conversion logic preserves CWS/CMS addresses, and Binti addresses are only utilized if the CWS/CMS field is blank. The Smarty Streets tool is used in CWS-CARES to automatically correct and complete address information.
As a reminder, CWS/CMS is the statewide system of record and the primary source of CWS-CARES data. For more information, please refer to the Binti to CWS-CARES V1 Data Conversion Fact Sheet.
Q: If a field in CWS-CARES already contains data, will the field be overwritten by the data received from the external system (Binti)?
A: No, if a field in CWS-CARES already contains data from the Child Welfare Services/Case Management System (CWS/CMS), it will not be augmented or overwritten by Binti data. For more information, please refer to the Binti to CWS-CARES V1 Data Conversion Fact Sheet.