A: While regional external systems are currently not in scope for CWS-CARES, in future iterations the opportunity exists to evaluate how CWS-CARES, as the single statewide child welfare information system, could replicate as much of the county-specific customizations as possible on a statewide basis to serve all counties and IV-E Tribes

A: There is currently no timeline or policy limiting when a county can purchase and implement a new external system. However, if the external system has functionality that is duplicative CWS-CARES, the county will be required to decommission that system functionality once CWS-CARES goes live. If a county plans to purchase a new external system, they must submit an APD (Advance Planning Document) before signing a contract. Further, state policy requires CWS/CMS remain the system of record for child welfare data, and all case-related information must continue to be entered into CWS/CMS. Finally, there is no plan to convert data from external systems like Traverse into CWS-CARES, as all child welfare case related records should already reside in CWS/CMS and will migrate to CWS-CARES during the CWS/CMS data conversion process.

A: Version 1 and Version 2 refer to the major releases of CWS-CARES. CWS-CARES Version 1 will be released in October 2026 and will include the functionality necessary to transition work from CWS/CMS systems to CWS-CARES. After that first big release, there will be small, periodic improvements to CWS-CARES. Version 2 will be the next major release of additional functionality.

A: There is no impact on the ultimate project release date—CWS-CARES V1 is still expected to go live in October of 2026. However, some project activities, like Extended User Scenario Testing (EUST) have been shifted to align with the new approach.

A: Counties have been designated to serve as Core Constituents for different Service Areas by recommendation from the County Welfare Director’s Association (CWDA). Up to this point in the CWS-CARES Project, we've used those Service Area designations to solicit input from Core Constituents. What Core Constituents will see moving forward in holistic design is a greater emphasis on getting input across Service Areas. For example, all Core Constituents are invited to provide feedback on the upcoming prototype demonstrations. It's not limited to just Core Constituents designated to those Service Areas. We encourage Core Constituents to forward these sessions to colleagues at their organizations with additional expertise.

A: Yes, counties must complete and submit their scope assessment to finalize and confirm the list of external systems for CARES V1, as this will be used to identify which systems are in scope based on the counties’ unique system configurations and needs. A preliminary scope assessment for external systems has been provided to each county in the External System County Catalog. 

A: As we begin planning for each EUST period, we will reach out to Core Constituents to request their participation and provide a summary of the functionality included in that period. The team will engage with specific Service Area users as needed in future EUST periods to gather diverse insights and scenarios.  It will be important that the users participating have direct experience with the Service Area being tested and are familiar with executing the related functions in practice, ensuring that their time and efforts are used most effectively. 

Additionally, we are collaborating with our Systems Integration partner to provide at least 4 weeks’ advance notice on specific topics, allowing counties sufficient time to arrange for the appropriate subject matter experts to participate in each review. 

A: Holistic design will provide additional feedback opportunities during both design and development in addition to extended user scenario testing (EUST).  

In addition, Core Constituents will have the opportunity to participate in Holistic Design transition sessions beginning the week of September 9th.  

We will continue to share updates on feedback outcomes in future meetings and are exploring ways to give our constituents a way to check up on the status of their input at any time. The goal is to keep engaging as we have, but more frequently, and with more transparency. We look forward to sharing more detail on the timing and methods. 

A: Tableau will replace Business Intelligence (BI) when Child Welfare-Services-California Automated Response and Engagement System (CWS-CARES) officially goes live.

A: Social workers will be able to complete all intake and hotline steps digitally, removing the use and needs of paper forms to complete the intake process. When a worker is in CWS-CARES and completing the Intake process, the worker will be directed to a newly created Structured Decision Making (SDM) tool where certain information will be automatically populated from CWS-CARES into the assessment fields, thus streamlining the assessment process. Once the assessment is completed, the assessment results will be shared back to the CWS-CARES system.
 
With the release of CWS-CARES, county workers will be directed to use the new modernized system and will no longer use CWS/CMS or CARES-Live. The existing WebSDM application will no longer be used, and the worker will be directed to use the SDM Assessment(s) via the CWS-CARES system.