Frequently Asked Questions
Resources
Q: Can Implementation Leads (ILs) be added to a county's Microsoft Teams channel and SharePoint?
A: Implementation Leads can be added to a county's Microsoft Teams channel and SharePoint if the county prefers. However, ILs cannot share access to the State SharePoint, share documents from the State SharePoint, and will need to reconcile documentation as needed.
Q: Will instructions be provided on how to open tickets in the new Help Desk service?
A: Yes, we are setting up a Service Desk County Advisory Committee (CAC) to work through the ticketing process and service level expectations. This CAC will include county/project representatives and the focus is operational county and state coordination, incidents and escalations, defect prioritization, business continuity, and knowledge base.
Q: Will there be dedicated support to assist County Admins with configuration?
A: Support will be provided for all Product Simulation users via a Service Desk. The specific support model is still being finalized, and more information will be shared as those details are confirmed.
Q: Will there be a system where the most updated training materials are available for users?
A: Training materials will be accessible to all Production Simulation users. We're currently finalizing the approach to ensure everyone has the most up-to-date resources, and additional details will be shared as soon as they're ready.
Q: Will nurses have access to CWS-CARES from May to October 2026 to work on Health and Education Passport (HEP)?
A: Yes, the nurses will have access from May to October 2026 to work on the Health and Education Passport (HEP).
Q: Will Production Simulation replace Extended User Scenario Testing (EUST) 4 or will it be in addition to?
A: Yes. Production Simulation will take place in lieu of EUST 4. Instead of a six-week testing period during EUST 4, organizations will have five months to test in the Production Simulation environment.
Q: Will the Production Simulation environment remain available to counties following Go-Live?
A: No, Production Simulation is a practice environment to help users prepare for CWS-CARES. Once Go-Live occurs, this environment will no longer be available. There will be a training environment to support training on an ongoing basis and that training environment will have interface connectivity, using mock data.
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: How will counties handle limited or no training spaces in certain counties?
A: We will discuss the unique needs of each county during the Organization CWS-CARES Training Logistics Planning Meetings.