Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Will CWS-CARES be directly posting expenses into the CEC or is it just able to read information after a claim has been submitted?
A: All data received from CECRIS will be read-only in CWS-CARES.
Q: Does CEC data coming from CECRIS need to be child-specific?
A: CWS-CARES will receive DFA600 data from CECRIS in CWS-CARES V1. All of this data is aggregated and program code specific.
Q: If we have a case specific expense, do we manually enter that?
A: No, counties will not be expected to do that. Case specific costs will be transmitted to CWS-CARES via an interface with CalSAWS.
Q: Will the CWS-CARES Permissions allow counties to limit who can review/edit the Administrative Claim sections?
A: Only users given the county-specific fiscal permissions will have the ability to review their county's admin claim data. All data from CECRIS will be read-only in CWS-CARES so there will not be any user in CWS-CARES that can enter/change data from CECRIS, regardless of permissions.
Q: Is FFPSA cost reporting in CWS-CARES for federal reporting purposes only, and not directly tied to reimbursement or funding?
A: Yes, that is correct. The cost that will be reported into CWS-CARES is to support programmatic federal reporting requirements.
Q: Who enters costs for services provided by counties?
A: Counties are expected to input costs for services that they provide themselves (e.g. Motivational Interviewing). Probation will also enter cost information if Probation staff are responsible for providing the service.
Q: Is the cost tracking template client-specific?
A: Yes, cost tracking templates will be client specific. Multiple children can be included in the same template, if they are under the same plan/home.
Q: Is the Title IV-E section intended to be used by county workers for entry into the CEC to replace invoices? Or to recap more specifically the costs that were already captured in the CEC? Is it expected that Community Based Organizations (CBOs) will invoice separately for services provided?
A: This data being entered in CWS-CARES for FFPSA service cost tracking is not intended to capture costs for CEC reporting. This is specifically to meet federal guidelines for the FFPSA program. CWS-CARES will not replace invoicing processes in V1. CDSS will provide additional guidance on what that will look like.
Q: Who from the CBO will submit data in the portal? Is it a data system manager, or a case manager entering information? Will only one CBO role be doing the management and submission of records?
A: The system will have different roles such as CBO admin, CBO supervisor and CBO worker. This is based on provider feedback we received that some folks in their organization are handling only administration, and others are managing services and entering info about delivery, etc. It will be up to the county/provider to determine who is assigned what permission in the portal. Portal Administrators have additional capabilities including updating provider profile information, submitting portal access requests, etc.
Q: What happens if the CBO attempts to provide services, but the family doesn't engage?
A: There will be functionality for the provider to report in the system that they did not provide services because the family did not engage.