A: At this time, CWS-CARES plans to have two client-facing sites in CARES V1. A portal for prevention services providers to support Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA) and a Resource Family Approval (RFA) applicant portal.  

A: Yes. The project recommends O365 (Office 365).

A: Social workers will be able to complete all intake and hotline steps digitally, removing the use and needs of paper forms to complete the intake process. When a worker is in CWS-CARES and completing the Intake process, the worker will be directed to a newly created Structured Decision Making (SDM) tool where certain information will be automatically populated from CWS-CARES into the assessment fields, thus streamlining the assessment process. Once the assessment is completed, the assessment results will be shared back to the CWS-CARES system.
 
With the release of CWS-CARES, county workers will be directed to use the new modernized system and will no longer use CWS/CMS or CARES-Live. The existing WebSDM application will no longer be used, and the worker will be directed to use the SDM Assessment(s) via the CWS-CARES system.

A: Yes. When someone changes their last name, their email will change and therefore the login will change. The last name can be changed by administrators of CARES V1.

A: CWS-CARES will not be moving away from phone and email MFA. At this time, the project is only planning to augment, not replace, the current authentication methods of phone and email. CWS-CARES is currently evaluating the use of tokens, specifically the use of TOTP (Time-based One-Time Passwords) through an authenticator app and this will be shared with all organizations once available. 

A: CWS-CARES is being built on a Salesforce platform, a cloud-based Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform, and the CWS-CARES team has selected three tools that integrate seamlessly with this platform. The tools and a description of each are as follows:   

Document Generation          
Document Generation includes the design, production, and delivering of documents in the CWS-CARES tool. Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) software will be used to enable the Document Generation process.   

• Design:  Design includes the design of the template, authoring of documents, and all elements of the design lifecycle. For the purposes of the document generation design lifecycle, it includes review, approval, and publishing of the document.   
• Produce: Produce includes the interactive editing and form generation.   
• Deliver: Deliver is the staging and multi-channel delivery of the form.   

• Storage: Includes the document category and metadata definition, full text & metadata – based search, library services, and redaction.   
• Document Lifecyle: Includes compliance, retention and hold management, and archival features.

• Enterprise/Originator: Includes import from Document Generation and will send a notification to the signer.   
• Customer/Signer: Includes authenticating identity, review and apply sign, and document submission.   
• Document Storage: Includes document retrieval, counter signature, if necessary, and storing to the document management system.  

A: CWS-CARES supports the automation of Probation child welfare functions, and the CWS-CARES project benefits from the input of Probation in CWS-CARES research and design activities for many different areas including case management, activities, and placement. Probation subject matter experts (SMEs) will be invited to specific design sessions at the discretion of the child welfare core county constituent(s) assigned to the module with an understanding from the CWS-CARES project that there are outstanding program and policy question on Probation workers use of CWS-CARES. The California Department of Social Services (CDSS) Child Welfare Services Branch (CWSB) is talking with leadership regarding changes to CWS-CARES requirements that may result as part of discussions. The CWS-CARES team will prioritize the implementation of revised policy direction from CDSS as decisions are made.

A: Funding for Probation staff involvement in CWS-CARES activities will be covered by the Core Constituent Participation Funding Model, meaning County Child Welfare and County Probation subject matter experts (SMEs) are reimbursed through their local agreements.

A: The service areas for CWS-CARES include Intake, Case Management, Resource Management, Financial Management, Eligibility, Courts, Data Management, CARES Administration, External Stakeholder Coordination, and Resource Family Approval. High-level descriptions of each service area may be found on the CWDS.ca.gov website at CWS-CARES Service Areas.

A: CWS-CARES information is being disseminated through CWS-CARES project teams such as Organizational Change Management (OCM), Strategic Communications, State Communications, and CWDS FAQs. For the latest CWS-CARES updates, please visit our CARES User Resources page.