CARES SPOCs, Technical Contacts, Data Quality Contacts, Implementation Coordinators, OCM Coordinators, County Leadership, Tribe Leadership, Probation Leadership, and State Leadership:
We are sharing an update regarding the CWS-CARES Production Simulation (CARES100) environment schedule and Global Search functionality.
Please be advised that a scheduled system outage for Prod Sim (CARES100) will occur to apply necessary technical updates from Tuesday, November 10, 2026, at 5:00 PM to Thursday, November 12, 2026, at 8:00 AM. Please refer to the release notes posted on System Updates & Release Notes page for more details.
Following recent adjustments to stabilize the environment and safeguard data confidentiality, Global Search is being updated with specific parameters to support secure record retrieval.
Beginning Thursday, November 12, 2026, at 8:00 AM, Global Search is being selectively re-enabled specifically for core units of work (Referrals, Cases, and Screenings). All other search parameters remain restricted.
- Search will only return results when querying exact IDs numbers:
- CARES Business Key / ID (e.g., CARES Screening, Referral or Case ID)
- Legacy CWS/CMS ID (e.g., CWS/CMS Case or Referral ID)
- Broad or text-based queries will return no results. This includes searches by:
- Screening, Referral, Case, or Person names / subject content
- Assigned worker names
- General text or metadata parameters
- Standard permissions and security checks remain enforced for RBAC (Role Based Access Control).
- If a user without proper permissions (e.g., lacking Sealed and Sensitive access) searches for a restricted ID, the system will yield no search results and display the message “Don't give up yet!” - identical to entering an invalid or non-existent ID. The system will not indicate whether a record exists.
- Restricting Global Search to exact ID parameters mirrors the legacy CWS/CMS "Find Folder" functionality, which requires exact identifier matches rather than open-ended text searches.
If you have any questions or require further assistance navigating these search updates, please reach out through standard support channels.
Action Required
Please share this with all staff impacted by this information.
Please contact Customer Relations for questions.
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Security Protocols for Prod Sim Case Data
The Prod Sim environment contains converted CWS/CMS cases reflecting actual system data as of September 20, 2026. Because this includes real, sensitive Personally Identifiable Information (PII), all case information must be strictly protected or redacted.
To protect CWS-CARES case data, please follow these important security guidelines when working with our support teams:
- Redact Ticket Info: Do not send Protected Health Information (PHI), PII, or confidential case details to the Service Desk via email or ticket. Sensitive and confidential data cannot be stored in the ticketing system.
- Secure Screen Shares: During support-requested screen shares, limit attendees to essential personnel only. Recording of sensitive information is strictly prohibited.
- Consult for Tier 3 Transfers: If Tier 3 support needs sensitive data, use secure transmission methods. Contact your county Privacy Officer or the CWDS ISO if you need assistance with secure routing.
Please contact the Customer Relations mailbox for questions.