A: Key phase activities for CWS-CARES V1 include the following:
Phase 1: Planning & Preparation (Today – March 2026)
•    Organization Assessment and Go-Live Readiness Checklist 
•    CWS/CMS data clean-up and CWS-CARES data validation 
•    Analysis of County-specific business processes 
•    Training needs analysis and County-specific tailoring of training materials
•    External systems, forms, and reports identification 
•    End User Scenario Testing (EUST) and user feedback activities
Phase 2: Readiness & Cutover (Fall 2025 – October 2026)
•    Readiness & Cutover 
•    Completion of final readiness activities
•    CARES V1 training delivery
•    Evaluation of interim processes impact on planned business processes
•    Data conversion, user configuration, roles analysis, and permissions configuration
Phase 3: Go-Live Support (October 2026 and beyond)
•    Go-Live Support 
•    Post-conversion data cleanup
•    Post-Go-Live communications and training 

A: CWS-CARES Version 1 (V1) is intended to cover the functionality required to decommission CWS/CMS, support new policies and programs, such as Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA), and lay the foundation for full Comprehensive Child Welfare Information System (CCWIS) compliance in CWS-CARES V2 (V2). While V2 scope is still being finalized, V2 is intended to build on the core functionality built in V1 and expand on additional capabilities such as advanced analytics and continued decommissioning of interfaces and external systems.  V1 goes live in October 2026.

A: CWS-CARES will provide training for the CWS-CARES system using a hybrid training approach. The CWS-CARES V1 hybrid training approach supports the delivery of training to all 121 Implementation Organizations (Orgs). In alignment with the County Welfare Directors Association (CWDA), Tribal Consultation, and the CARES project, this hybrid approach facilitates a partnership across the Regional Training Academies, Juvenile Probation, Organizations, and the CARES project training team to deliver training statewide. CalSAWS will provide training for the changes in CalSAWS for external users.

A: For Child Welfare Systems-California Automated Response and Engagement System (CWS-CARES) V1, the only planned external access will be for Resources Family Approval (RFA) and Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA) providers.

A: Counties will determine which of their external systems are in scope for decommission based on how they will interact with CWS-CARES. Counties will work with the CWS-CARES Project to develop a decommission plan (agreements, requirements, contract management, timeline).

A: External systems (a tool or technology used to deliver child welfare services in addition to, or outside of, the legacy CWS/CMS solution) will be addressed in the following ways during the move to CWS-CARES: 

• Select prioritized external systems will have data converted into CWS-CARES.
• Focus on external systems related to Resource Family Approval (RFA), Placement including Family Finding, and Prevention Services. 
• Continuing Operations of external systems.
• Counties and the CWS-CARES Project will work together on a strategy for continuing operations. 
• Includes Counties identifying data dependencies between existing systems, planning/updating systems to ensure business continuity after CWS-CARES go live and updating to-be process maps. 
• Decommission of external systems.
• Counties will determine which of their external systems are in scope for decommission based on how they will interact with CWS-CARES (example: functionality to CWS-CARES). 

A: As of December 2023, E-Adopt for Resource Family Approval (RFA) is currently being researched and evaluated to determine if it is a candidate for external system data conversion.

A: CWS-CARES will interface with a number of partners to ensure that CWS-CARES has timely and pertinent data for the CWS-CARES child welfare and is able to present a holistic view of an individual or a case. Currently, for the release of CWS-CARES Version 1 (V1), the CWS-CARES team will be interfacing with:

• California Department of Social Services (CDSS) – Licensing Information System (LIS) will provide information on licensed placement providers for workers within CWS-CARES. This is something that currently takes place within CWS/CMS and CARES-Live.
• California Department of Social Services – Facility Automation System (FAS) will provide children’s residential facilities information for workers within CWS-CARES.
• California Department of Social Services - County Expense Claim Reporting and Information System (CECRIS) will allow workers to complete the necessary expense claims within CWS-CARES including the ability to produce CB-496 and CFS 101 with both IV-E and IV-B expenditures and caseloads.
• California Department of Developmental Services (DDS) will provide Regional Center placement options into the CWS-CARES provider directory. This will allow workers to easily access critical regional center information without having to leave CWS-CARES.
• California Department of Education (CDE) will provide updated school (resource) data elements within CWS-CARES, similar to what is currently in CWS/CMS. This information will not include child specific school or grade level information.
• California Statewide Automated Welfare System (CalSAWS) – Foster Care Eligibility Determination (FCED) is an interface between CWS-CARES and CalSAWS/FCED that will eliminate the need for manual data entry from one system to another and automate the eligibility determination process in a cost effective and efficient manner.

A: CWS-CARES is being designed through guidance from the Comprehensive Child Welfare Information System (CCWIS) requirements as set by the Administration on Children Youth and Families (ACYF). These regulatory requirements will ensure that data collected will be:

• Complete, Timely, and Accurate
• Consistently & Uniformly Collected
• Exchanged & Maintained Confidentially
• Implemented & Maintained through Automated Functions
• Supportive of Child Welfare Policies, Goals & Practices

• Data will be validated at collection (I.e., data entry)
• Data in CWS-CARES will be continually measured through data profiling and data quality assessments. CWS-CARES data stewards will work closely with the data governance and data quality teams in determining the criticality of any data violations and the effectiveness of the remediations.
• Using automated data exchanges in a standardized format with various external sources to provide supporting data, in turn, reducing manual entry with the goal of preventing data inconsistencies and inaccuracy.
• Improved data analysis tools that can assist in trends, projections, and identifying gaps in providing child welfare services.
• Providing master data management (MDM) to provide a single source of truth throughout CWS-CARES thereby avoiding duplicates, redundancy, and inaccuracy.