CARES SPOCs, Training Contacts, Implementation Coordinators, OCM Coordinators, County Leadership, Tribe Leadership, Probation Leadership, and State Leadership:
Following the conclusion of CWS-CARES Instructor-Led Training (ILT) on November 20, 2026, the CWS-CARES Project will refresh the Training Environment (CARES 104) to align with the Production system and support ongoing training after Go-Live.
CARES 104 will be unavailable November 23–27, 2026 while the refresh is completed.
What to Expect During the Refresh
The refresh will result in the following changes:
- Existing training data will be deleted, including transaction data previously entered by users or loaded by the CWS-CARES Project.
- Training completion data will be deleted. An extract of Enablement Program completion data will be pulled on November 20 and shared with counties.
- Existing user permissions are expected to remain unchanged following the refresh.
- Enablement Program knowledge checks will be disabled in all environments following the conclusion of ILT.
Conducting Training After the Refresh
Once CARES 104 is available again, organizations will be able to conduct their own training using existing ILT materials. Organizations will need to manually create new training cases, as previously loaded training data will no longer be available.
To support this process, the Training Team will provide instructions for:
- ILT Courses: Creating cases needed to deliver training using existing ILT materials.
- Additional Training Activities: Creating generic Child Welfare and Non-Investigative cases for training outside the ILT curriculum
These case creation instructions will be published on the CWS-CARES Implementation Portal and shared with Organization Training Coordinators before CARES 104 is available again on November 30, 2026.
Organizations may need additional preparation time to create these training cases as part of planned training activities.
Action Required
Share this update with staff who use CARES 104.
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.