Frequently Asked Questions
Stakeholder Briefing
Q: May we please get an update on the requirement that the Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths Assessment (CANS) must be completed before Case Plan Service Objectives can be entered?
A: The intention is for case plans to be completed in alignment with the Child and Family Team, with the Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths Assessment (CANS) serving as the community metric assessment. The outcome of the CANS score and the identified areas requiring the most focus become the drivers for the case plan. Although we understand there are times when the shell of a case plan, or the beginning of a case plan, needs to be developed before the CANS is completed, there are circumstances where this occurs. As a result, the Project is working on other options and workarounds. This is a very important issue, and the teams are actively working on a solution.
Q: When is the search function in CWS-CARES going to be enhanced? Currently users aren’t able to search by anything but name and that brings back too many results. Users can’t search by state ID, Social Security Number (SSN), or by CalSAWS case number.
A: Focused Search & Person search has been enhanced, and users can now search by IDs such as those mentioned above. You can also include addresses in your search parameters as well.
Q: In addition to a completed Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths Assessment (CANS), does the Child and Family Team (CFT) need to be held and uploaded into CWS-CARES for the case plan to be eligible for supervisor approval?
A: CFT and Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths Assessment (CANS) are not dependent on one another being completed. There isn’t any requirement to upload a CFT form as a part of Case Plan completion.
Q: May we please have a reminder outlining the expected items to continue testing in Mock cycles in Production Simulation?
A: Users are free to validate data at their own discretion, as there are no formal test cases to execute. For example, users may compare a record in CWS-CMS with the corresponding record in CWS-CARES Production Simulation to validate that the data matches. Based on county requests, resources will be available on the Production Simulation Hub, including EUST scenarios, navigation guides, walkthrough meeting recordings, and source-to-target mappings that detail source and target fields, as well as data transformations. In addition, Enablement Programs will become available to help guide users through the system.
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: How often will data in the Production Simulation environment be refreshed?
A: While the schedule is still being finalized, we anticipate refreshing the environment approximately three times between May and October which provides updates with less disruption. The strategy will be a key agenda item for the Production Simulation County Advisory Committee (CAC).
Q: How many licenses to the Production Simulation environment will counties get?
A: All users of CWS/CMS will be able to access the Production Simulation environment.
Q: Will data entry into the CWS-CARES Production Simulation map over to CWS/CMS, or will dual entry be needed?
A: Data entered into the Production Simulation will not transfer to CWS/CMS. Since the simulation is strictly a practice environment, CWS/CMS remains the sole statewide system of record. Consequently, any data required for official records will still require entry into CWS/CMS.
Q: How many users per county/organization will be able to use the Production Simulation environment?
A: Active CWS/CMS users (approx. 25,000) will be able to access CWS-CARES Production Simulation. Additionally, it will incorporate their role-based access controls (RBAC) to ensure their permissions accurately mirror the live production environment.
Q: Will Person Merge functionality be available in CWS-CARES to address duplicate client or person records?
A: Yes, Person Merge functionality will be available in CWS-CARES.