Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Will Snowflake feed production-like data into the Enterprise Data Platform (EDP) as part of Production Simulation, and if so, when will it be available?
A: Yes. The Production Simulation environment will include production data, along with data entered by users during the Production Simulation period, which is available for integration into the Enterprise Data Platform (EDP).
Q: Is there an updated project timeline that includes Production Simulation that can be shared with counties?
A: The Project is updating the Organization Participation Timeline, which will include Production Simulation, and plans to share it with counties.
Q: What will Probation departments be required to enter into CWS-CARES?
A: Probation will be entering the same data into CWS-CARES as they do in CWS/CMS.
Q: Will the State stop requiring counties to submit certain quarterly or annual reports once the State has direct access to the data in CWS-CARES?
A: This will be a CDSS decision made program by program, once CDSS can validate that the data needed is being consistently entered into CWS-CARES.
Q: Will CWS-CARES work with Dragon Naturally Speaking or similar dictation software?
A: The Project tested the native dictation features available in both Mac and Windows environments and did not identify any accessibility concerns. Counties are encouraged to validate third-party assistive technologies within their local environments, and to participate in End User Scenario Testing (EUST) 3 and Production Simulation to confirm that dictation functionality performs as expected in CWS-CARES.
Q: For how many months after CWS-CARES goes live will counties have access to the CWS/CMS mainframe to pull data?
A: A six-month read-only period for CWS/CMS is planned after CWS-CARES goes live. Note that CWS/CMS mainframe data will no longer be updated once CWS-CARES is live, meaning the data will become stale. Although read-only access remains available for six months, the last data update will occur at the October 2026 Go-Live. Counties intending to perform a one-time data pull after Go-Live are strongly encouraged to do so as close to the Go-Live date as possible.
Q: How often will data in Production Simulation be refreshed?
A: The Production Simulation County Advisory Committee (CAC) is still determining the appropriate data refresh schedule for Production Simulation. Once the committee and project leadership finalize the refresh rate, the Project will communicate the schedule to all stakeholders.
Q: Can a contractor access the Person-Centered Intelligence Solution (P-CIS) as a stand-alone system outside of CWS-CARES to record the Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths (CANS) assessment?
A: No. External partners, such as contractors, cannot access P-CIS outside of CWS-CARES. Any CANS assessment conducted as part of a child welfare case must be completed through CWS-CARES.
Q: Will converted documents from CWS/CMS to CARES be the same format that they were already saved as, or is there a standard format that they will be converted to?
A: Yes, documents converted from CWS/CMS to CWS-CARES will retain their original file formats. The conversion process preserves the document format as stored in CWS/CMS rather than converting documents into a standardized format.
Q: Is there a plan for corrupted files that get converted with errors?
A: During the data conversion process, legacy documents from CWS/CMS are transferred to CWS-CARES in their native format and are not modified or transformed. Only documents with valid file extensions (e.g., JPG, DOC, PDF, XLS, TXT, DOCX, XLSX, JPEG) are eligible for transfer to the CWS-CARES staging area, which aligns with the types of documents supported in the legacy system. As part of this process, files that do not meet supported file type criteria are filtered out prior to migration. Based on current understanding, the conversion process does not introduce changes to document content, and no issues related to document corruption during migration have been identified to date.