A: The project has made final revisions to our timeline, reviewed, and approved by the state Department of Technology and Child Welfare Services-California Automated Response and Engagement System (CWS-CARES) Board of Directors. Please see CARES Project Roadmap Approval presentation for more information. You can also view the more detailed Roadmap online: CWDS Roadmap

A: Yes, the Core County structure will remain. Core constituents have been identified from Core Counties and are actively involved in collaboration activities with Child Welfare Services-California Automated Response and Engagement System. The current Core Constituents can be found on the CWDS.ca.gov website: CWS-CARES Core Constituent List.

A: The project has the collected research from previous efforts provided by the Organizations and will continue to leverage/refer to it as needed.

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: Yes. Data to satisfy AFCARS data element requirements will be built and tested at every milestone throughout the project development. AFCARS data is used to develop the federal California-Child and Family Services Review (CFSR) outcome measures, which are monitored over time.

A: Some forms will have the ability to add county specific information (e.g., County Header/Footer information). Counties may also create and save county specific forms.

A: Yes, counties will be able to create customized forms and these forms will be able to be saved as a county form.   

A: The project is utilizing a modified agile approach. This means the project is developing the functionality in Child Welfare Services-California Automated Response and Engagement System (CWS-CARES), incrementally.

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 Certification Approval and Licensing (CALS). You can find high-level descriptions of each service area located on our CWDS.ca.gov website: CWS-CARES Service Areas.

A: Yes, Tableau is intended to replace Business Objects.