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.
 

A: County Help Desk teams will receive targeted guidance and training to ensure they are ready for Go‑Live. The project is defining clear roles for Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 support, and policies and procedures for local Tier 1 help desks are currently being developed. A new service desk vendor begins at the end of September, and counties will receive information to help them understand the transition and what support will look like during cutover and Go‑Live. The Production Simulation (Prod Sim) team will remain in place to assist throughout this period.

Counties can leverage built‑in CWS-CARES tools and ServiceNow, which will guide users through basic troubleshooting and route issues to live support when needed. Some counties will use local Tier 1 help desks, while others without local support will contact the project help desk directly.

A small SME huddle will be convened to finalize help desk procedures, and counties are invited to provide input through county leadership and CWDA to the Project.
 

A: In general, processing referrals in CWS‑CARES is expected to take roughly the same amount of time as in CWS/CMS. Staff considered 'expert' in CWS/CMS ran multiple referral scenarios to establish a time estimate: staff considered 'novice' in CWS/CMS completed the minimum requirements in about 30 minutes, and expert staff completed them in less time. The Project team is currently working to schedule walk-through sessions with Fresno and Los Angeles Counties to demonstrate the Hotline functionality, highlight recent enhancements to the Search tool, and gather additional feedback.

Counties later identified that search functionality contributed to concerns about overall processing time. In response, the Project has implemented improvements to search functionality. For more information on improved search functionality, see here.
 

A: The ticketing system helps identify both system defects and training needs by tracking issue trends and reviewing how tickets are submitted and resolved. Tickets stay open until fixes are confirmed, ensuring accurate visibility into recurring problems. Tier 2 follows established workaround guidance before escalating or closing issues, and users retest fixes or tickets close after five business days without response.

Service desk reviews and data analysis highlight where additional user training is needed and whether training-related issues are entering the ticket system. OTSI will also verify that current county messaging on ticket closure aligns with actual ticket behavior.

Through this process, the system provides users with clear updates while helping identify both technical issues and training gaps.
 

A: The Project Team is committed to offering make‑up trainings. We will assess the best ways to support users with data‑entry instructions for the workarounds, which may include providing a desk guide or offering a webinar overview.
 

A: Final workaround processes were released to counties on September 4, 2026. For full details, log into the System Updates & Release Notes page of the Production Simulation Hub and access the CWS-CARES Interim Workaround Guidance document.

The CWS‑CARES Knowledge Base has been updated to reflect these finalized workarounds, and all refresher training materials will be aligned with and based on these final processes.
 

A: A list identifying all workaround scenarios was provided at the in-person CWDA/County Leadership/Project meeting on August 14, 2026. Screenshots and step‑by‑step instructions for each of the 82 workarounds was released to counties on September 4.

For full details, log into the System Updates & Release Notes page of the Production Simulation Hub and access the CWS-CARES Interim Workaround Guidance document.
 

A: A list identifying all workaround scenarios was provided at the in-person CWDA/County Leadership/Project meeting on August 14, 2026. Screenshots and step‑by‑step instructions for each of the 82 workarounds was released to counties on September 4.

For full details, log into the System Updates & Release Notes page of the Production Simulation Hub and access the CWS-CARES Interim Workaround Guidance document.
 

A: Additional information was released to all counties on August 31, 2026. For full details, see the Interim Guidance Document: Managing RFA, Emergency Placements, and External Systems Processes at CARES V1 Go-Live in the CWDS website.

To reduce impacts to the families and children we serve, counties will be permitted to complete Resource Family Home Applications initiated prior to CWS-CARES V1 Go-Live in the external system in which it was initiated until data conversion to CWS-CARES is complete. For systems with data conversion deferred to until after CWS-CARES Go-Live, conversion is currently anticipated to occur in July 2027. Once all active applications have been completed in the external system or data conversion is complete, whichever comes first, the external systems identified are required to be made inactive or read-only.

A: Counties have flexibility. Train-the-Trainers can:

• Conduct all Instructor-Led Training (ILT) sessions independently and will receive support from CWS-CARES Trainers who can answer questions during training.
• Co-lead with state trainers.
• Shadow state trainers while learning the process.