Frequently Asked Questions
Process Information Session (PIS)
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: Which RM Directory Types will counties be responsible for maintaining, versus those maintained by Child Welfare Digital Services (CWDS), California Department of Social Services (CDSS), or Community Care Licensing (CCL)?
A: Counties will maintain records for service providers, law enforcement agencies, county superior courts, district attorney offices, county offices, and adoption agencies, with much of this information being converted from CWS/CMS. The California Department of Education (CDE) will maintain education provider records, the Department of Developmental Services (DDS) will maintain information for regional centers, and Community Care Licensing (CCL) will maintain records for licensed facilities such as FFAs, STRTPs, and TTHPs.
Q: Will resource entries be able to be entered by each county before the launch of CWS-CARES in October (so that workers and staff are not all at once entering this data upon launch)? Will the records for Tribes come over via data conversion from CWS/CMS, and are those records to be maintained at the county level as well? And what about Tribes that are not federally recognized?
A: CWS-CARES has an interface with CCL, CDE, and DDS. Tribe information will come pre-loaded from the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). Current data in CWS/CMS will be converted into CWS-CARES to help mitigate a large amount of data entry. The information will be maintained at the state level. Data conversion will be facilitated for these organizations and they are not expected to start fresh; there will be a starting point that organizations can maintain and update as time goes on. For tribes that are not federally recognized, we will have those state-recognized tribes come into CWS-CARES as well. That is an additional list we are tracking. If there are tribes that need to be added, the State will be able to do that.
Q: Is the process for adding a New Agency in CWS-CARES the same as adding a New Office?
A: Yes, while the video demonstration shows the user selecting “Law Enforcement Agency” for the Organization Type, this is essentially demonstrating how a user would add a new office.
Q: Will an assignment desk be automatically assigned to an office?
A: The Assignment desk is an optional field and is not automatically assigned.
Q: What is the difference between Sealed and Sensitive?
A: Sealed is done based on a court order and is typically after a case is closed, although it is not required that the case be closed. Sensitive is for cases involving high profile people.
Q: Will the primary worker still be able to see their sensitive cases without having sensitive access?
A: Yes, the primary worker will still be able to see their sensitive cases without requiring sensitive access.
Q: Is the Court Order Number the Salesforce number for that court order?
A: The Court Order Number is related to the court order that requires the screening, referral, or case to be sealed.
Q: With CWS-CARES no longer generating User IDs, will SDM and SafeMeasures be modified to accommodate no usernames, or will we be entering emails instead? How will users log into SDM and Safe Measures?
A: CWS-CARES will have a data interface to SDM and SafeMeasures will use the user's email address to connect to these systems.
Q: What CWS-CARES dependencies and rules exist for email addresses?
A: No functionality other than login is driven by email address. We allow all permissions to be controlled with one login, compared to legacy that required multiple logins.