Frequently Asked Questions
Legacy Systems
Q: What updates can you share regarding improvements to access and permissions in CARES?
A: The Project reports that Roles Based Access will be ready for testing during Production Simulation, the CWS-CARES Administration team is supporting user setup, and staff lists have been updated to include only active users.
Q: What progress has been made to improve the reliability and usability of form generation in WORD and AEM?
A: IBM is developing the top‑priority 2,400 county forms in Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) by mid August, and counties may create or modify forms in either format and upload them themselves. California Juvenile (JV) court forms are not allowed to be edited per JCC.
Q: What progress has been made to improve Contact Note functionality, given the current challenges with multiple sections, limited space, and the inability to edit finalized notes?
A: At Go‑Live, counties will have the option to choose structured or unstructured contact notes. Supervisors will also have the option to require approval before submission. Unstructured notes currently support applying one contact to multiple children.
Q: I am a Binti county. How will my county’s existing RFA cases that still need action be handled as we move from the previous system to the new one?
A: Guidance explaining temporary procedures counties must follow for Resource Family Approvals (RFA), Resource Family Homes (RFH), and Emergency Placements when CWS‑CARES Version 1 (CARES V1) goes live was released August 31.
At CARES V1 Go-Live:
- All new RFA/RFH applications and Emergency Placements must be started and managed in CWS‑CARES.
- If an RFA/RFH application is approved in an external system after Go-Live, counties must re‑create and fully process the application in CWS‑CARES so the Resource Family Home can be created.
- Applications already in progress in external systems can continue there through approval.
- Historical information will remain in external systems until data is converted after Go-Live.
Q: For the Resource Family Approval (RFA) Portal, which email address will be used from CWS/CMS? There are 2 spots for email addresses, one under the Service Care Provider (SCP) tab or the payee tab, which will be carried over into CWS-CARES?
A: Moving from CWS/CMS to CWS-CARES, the email on the Primary Applicant/Resource Parent's Person record will be used for the Resource Family Approval (RFA) Portal. This should correspond with the email on the Primary Service Care Provider (SCP) in CWS/CMS.
Q: Will all documents that have been scanned and imported in CWS/CMS be available in CWS-CARES Version 1 (CARES V1)?
A: Yes, all documents that have been scanned, imported and made available for cases in CWS/CMS will be available in CWS-CARES. Documents with valid file extensions that successfully pass the malware scan are migrated to CWS-CARES Version 1.
Any documents that are infected, corrupted, or have non‑supported/invalid file extensions will be excluded and not brought over to CWS-CARES. Legacy documents will continue to be available in the read‑only system and users will still be able to view, download, and print these documents. The limitation applies only to creating or editing documents in the legacy system. Additionally, all legacy generated documents up to April 17th, 2026, have been moved to Production Simulation otherwise known as CARES 100.
Q: What exactly are we supposed to be validating in Production Simulation (e.g., case assignments, contact notes)?
A: When conducting validation, the Project asks that you please compare what's in CWS-CARES to what's in CWS/CMS and look for discrepancies. Records should generally match one-for-one except where changes have occurred since the April 17th data snapshot. This includes cases, records, assignments, participants, demographic/person profile info, contacts, and documents.
Q: Are the Offices in CWS/CMS automatically getting transferred over to CWS-CARES?
A: Yes, current office and staff information will be migrated from CWS/CMS to CWS-CARES.
Q: Is there a group at the State level providing feedback on the health section of CWS-CARES?
A: The Case Management team worked with case management constituent counties to gather input on pain points for documenting health and education information in CWS/CMS, and also received documentation from prior public health workgroups. The team is reviewing End User Scenario Testing (EUST) 3 feedback related to the Health and Education Passport (HEP), and all feedback provided during Production Simulation will also be reviewed for inclusion in development.
Q: Will probation data be converted from CWS/CMS as-is, so that case counts are preserved (for example, 600 cases remain 600 rather than becoming 300)?
A: Probation data will be converted to CWS-CARES. The primary and secondary responsible agency for a case in CWS-CARES will not use the terms "600" or "300" (it will show "Probation"); however, the dual statuses from CWS/CMS will be brought into a narrative field in CWS-CARES so users can see the original CWS/CMS term (for example, "Dep 300 Receiving Prob Srvcs" or "Ward 601/602 Receiving CWS"). As an example of the mapping: if a CWS/CMS case has a primary responsible agency of "County Welfare Department" and a client dual status of Probation, then in CWS-CARES the case's primary responsible agency would be "Child Welfare" and the secondary responsible agency would be "Probation."