A: The National Provider Identifier (NPI) registry is a set of data that could help identify providers and reduce duplicates by matching name and location data, but the NPI data does have its limitations. The data is only for providers that handle Health Insurance Portability and Accounting Act (HIPAA) data, so may not cover all provider types stored within Child Welfare Services/Case Management System (CWS/CMS). The NPI data is also a self-register database; it is only as good as the data entered by the provider, so there may be limitations on accuracy and timeliness. There may also be gaps in what data NPI stores and what CWS/CMS stores, for example, the NPI provider may only be assigned to one address (main agency), but in CWS/CMS there could be multiple addresses for that provider where they physically perform services.

A: Yes, CWS-CARES will act as an electronic case file. However, counties may still require hard copy files for documents they would not choose to scan and upload to the CWS-CARES electronic record.

A: CWS-CARES V1 will provide processes and tools to support data quality - including search, data quality monitoring and Master Data Management (MDM) - to prevent and resolve duplicates, inconsistencies, and inaccuracies. With respect to the termination of the relationship between the child and biological parent, the system will correctly record such facts and rigorously protect information without deleting the history required for process improvement and program evaluation and without generating duplicate person records.

A: Yes, CWS-CARES will include functionality that allows social workers to view changes made to a record over time. The CARES Data Infrastructure (CDI) will record all data changes (create, update, and delete transactions) to support supervision, auditing, and analytics.

A: CWS-CARES will provide a variety of reporting and analytics features to support not only state and federal requirements, but also to track operational metrics and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) by Service Area.

A: Currently, batch printing documents is out of scope for CWS-CARES V1. The project is investigating technical solutions. 

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: The Child Welfare Services-California Automated Response and Engagement System (CWS-CARES) Implementation Team estimated organization implementation participation hours that took into consideration the types of interactions it anticipated would be needed from the counties over the course of the next few years, recognizing that participation would increase as the go-live date gets closer. Examples of the types of activities that were anticipated in the near term include: 

• Attendance at the bi-weekly CWS-CARES Implementation Meeting

• Initiating organization engagement with the CWS-CARES Implementation Team by way of attendance at the Implementation Executive Briefing

• County Implementation Coordinator Kickoff meetings, County Implementation Assessments, and then ongoing monthly interactions with each county