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: 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.
Q: Are there plans on implementing a document imaging solution for CWS-CARES?
A: Currently, there are no plans for a document imaging solution directly into CWS-CARES at this time. Users can scan documents to their computers and upload any saved documents as needed.
Q: Outside of Child & Family Services (CFS) staff, will other Health & Human Services (HHS) partners, like Behavioral Health and Recovery Services (BHRS) for example, who have access to CWS-CARES be able to access all information or will they only have access to limited information/functions in CWS-CARES?
A: Access to CWS-CARES is role-based, and counties are responsible for determining how system access is assigned to their users based on local operational needs.
At this time, there is no dedicated worker permission specifically configured for Behavioral Health staff. For secondary role assignment, a “Public Health Nurse” role is available and may be leveraged by counties as appropriate. However, there is currently no distinct Behavioral Health role with a separate, limited permission set.
Q: How will Resource Family Approval (RFA) Applicants be categorized in CWS-CARES V1? Will they remain separate or become part of the Person record?
A: RFA Applicants will be put in as Category 1 people, and they will become part of the Person record.
Q: If a client moves from one county to another, will imaged documents and associated data transfer automatically with the rest of the client’s data?
A: Yes. In CWS-CARES, documents attached to a unit of work, such as a case, remain associated with that case. When the case is transferred from one county to another, the associated documents and relevant data remain linked to the case and are accessible to the receiving county.
Q: Will converted documents from CWS/CMS to CWS-CARES be in the same format they were originally saved in, or will they be converted to a standard format?
A: Yes, documents converted from CWS/CMS to CWS-CARES will retain their original file formats. The conversion process preserves the document format as stored in CWS/CMS rather than converting documents into a standardized format.