CWDS Bulletins

All CARES-Live Meeting Attendees:

 The CWDS Project Team previously concluded CARES‑Live releases to support the transition to CWS‑CARES; this decision was communicated to the organizations on June 30, 2025. In alignment with that decision—and following the successful deployment of the final CARES‑Live release—we proposed during the April 15, 2026 Quarterly CARES‑Live meeting, to formally discontinue these meetings after April 2026.  A poll was conducted during the meeting, allowing participants to vote on whether to discontinue or continue the quarterly meetings. The overwhelming majority voted to discontinue.

Ending the meetings will allow counties to dedicate more time to Prod Sim activities and other CARES‑related priorities.

All existing support services will remain in place and continue uninterrupted until the statewide rollout of CARES V1 is complete.

• New User onboarding processes will remain in place and continue as usual
• CARES-Live Demonstrations will continue to be provided upon request
• CANS Duplicate Assessment Clean-up will continue to be processed on a semi-annual basis
• CARES-Live Usage/Metric reports will continue to be made available
• CWDS Service Desk will remain available and will continue to track, review and coordinate with the technical teams on SNOW tickets submitted by CARES-Live users until the statewide rollout of CARES V1is complete
• Customer Relations will remain available to address county questions at CWS_CustRel@otsi.ca.gov

Action Required

No Action Required - Effective immediately, the Quarterly CARES Live meetings will be discontinued, and the session scheduled for July 2026 will not take place.  

All SPOCs and Technical Contacts:

The CARES-Live team has scheduled monthly Infrastructure maintenance for Thursday, April 23, 2026, from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM. During this scheduled maintenance, the CARES-Live team will deploy infrastructure updates, remove CANS duplicate records and security patches that are not visible to users of CARES-Live.

NOTE: Users will not be able to access the CARES-Live application during the scheduled outage.

Action Required

If users experience any issues with CARES-Live, please follow your county process for reporting issues. CARES-Live County Administrators may contact the CARES Service Desk through the CWDS ServiceNow Customer Support Management (CSM) Portal. Alternate methods are phoning 1-855-292-3444 or via email at Servicedesk@cwds.ca.gov during normal business hours. You may also email after hours and a Service Desk representative will contact you the next business day.

ALL SPOCs, Technical Contacts and CAD Contacts:

April 22, 2026 UPDATE: The original communication included an error. The patching begins on Friday, May 15, 2026, at 6:00 PM instead of 8:00 PM.

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The California Department of Technology (CDT) has scheduled monthly Microsoft security patching. The patching begins on Friday, May 15, 2026, at 8:00 PM 6:00 PM and concludes on Saturday, May 16, 2026, at 1:00 AM. The activity may cause interruptions to the Business Objects (BO) servers within the patching window. The expected impact to users is low; however, there is a potential to cause some BO reports to fail to send, or automated scripts may fail to retrieve.

Action Required

Review scheduled BO reports and reschedule report jobs to avoid the scheduled maintenance window. Rerun the missed report jobs, if necessary.

Contact the IBM Help Desk (800-428-8268) to report any issues with your Business Objects content.

All SPOCs, Technical Contacts, and SBC Administrators:

The California Department of Technology (CDT) has scheduled an upgrade window for Saturday, May 2, 2026, beginning at 6:00 AM and concluding at 10:00 AM. During the upgrade window, SBC users may experience a brief service interruption while CDT is bringing the new Windows 2022 application servers online.

CDT advises not to use SBC to access CWS/CMS during the upgrade window as users may experience a service interruption. Also, SBC users will continue to run on the Windows 2016 application servers even after those servers are placed in maintenance mode if they are connected when the migration occurs. This migration occurs during the usual SBCS scheduled preventative maintenance window.
 

Action Required

If users experience any issues with CWS/CMS, please follow your county process for reporting issues or you may contact the IBM Boulder Help Desk at 1-800-428-8268.

ALL SPOCs and TRAINING CONTACTS:

The Child Welfare Digital Services (CWDS) Office is requesting county staff to participate in the Release 9.8 County Test Workshop (CTW).  Release 9.8 is scheduled for delivery to the counties on July 11, 2026.

The CTW for Release 9.8 will be conducted in a remote setting, via Server Based Computing (SBC) soft tokens.  

The deadline to register is:  May 19, 2026.

Registered testers will participate in the testing of Release 9.8, which is scheduled for delivery to the counties on July 11, 2026.  CWDS is seeking a total of 15 county staff members for each of the 16 sessions (2 sessions per day, 9AM - 12PM and 1PM - 4PM). There will be no testing from 12PM - 1PM each day of CTW.   

Remote CTW sessions will be on the following dates: 

Week 1 (Read/Write Environment)

Monday, June 1, 2026 (AM or PM session)

Tuesday, June 2, 2026 (AM or PM session)

Wednesday, June 3, 2026 (AM or PM session)

Thursday, June 4, 2026 (AM or PM session)

Week 2 (Read-Only Environment)

Monday, June 8, 2026 (AM or PM session)

Tuesday, June 9, 2026 (AM or PM session)

Wednesday, June 10, 2026 (AM or PM session)

Thursday, June 11, 2026 (AM or PM session)

Participants are welcome to register for any of the sessions listed above, in half or whole day increments. Participants are recommended to register for at least one session per week. This will allow the participant to compare activities in both the usual read/write environment and the read-only environment.

The sessions will be limited to a maximum of 15 people per session.  No exceptions. 

We encourage you to submit your request for a specific session as soon as possible, but no later than close of business on May 19, 2026.  If a daily count exceeds the maximum count, Customer Relations will work with that tester to be rescheduled to another session. 

Please note that all requests must be submitted by the deadline so that the CWDS Office can finalize the needed arrangements. Late registrations cannot be accepted.

A  Release 9.8 County Test Workshop Online Registration Form (see link below) for each potential tester must be received as soon as possible, but no later than close of business on May 19, 2026.

 Link:  Release 9.8 County Test Workshop (CTW) Registration Form

If for any reason, you cannot access the Online Registration Form, please contact Andrea Johnson-Kumar at 916-891-3143 or via email at Andrea.Johnson-Kumar@otsi.ca.gov or Customer Relations at CWS_CustRel@otsi.ca.gov.

The CWDS Office will work with the registered participants on all the details of their CTW participation.  

SBC Soft Token Use:

Once registration has closed on May 19, 2026, Customer Relations will schedule a MS Teams meeting with testers and their County IT Contacts.  The purpose of this meeting will be to make sure that your County IT can configure your workstation with the needed software and any other required configurations.  If this cannot be accomplished, your registration in this CTW cannot be accommodated. 

System Change Requests (SCRs) included: 

• SCR 9003 - Place CWS/CMS in a Read-Only State
• SCR 8993 - Referral Completed Due Date
• SCR 8973 - ICWA Eligible Data Entry (Part A)
• SCR 9034 - R9.8 Training Tools Package

Counties are encouraged to register individuals with knowledge and experience working in the areas mentioned above.  A mix of end users with casework or supervisory experience will also be very helpful.  Participants will validate the changes in the release and will perform tests of problem fixes and enhancements. Participants will work with other County and State testers as well as vendor support staff.

If you have any questions regarding this recruitment, please contact:  Andrea Johnson-Kumar at 916-891-3143 or via email at Andrea.Johnson-Kumar@otsi.ca.gov or Customer Relations at CWS_CustRel@otsi.ca.gov.

Your continued support of CWDS is greatly appreciated. 

Action Required

Submit a Release 9.8 County Test Workshop Online Registration Form no later than May 19, 2026.

CARES SPOCs, Implementation Coordinators, OCM Coordinators, County Leadership, Tribe Leadership, Probation Leadership, and State Leadership:

As we move closer to the statewide launch of CWS-CARES this October, we want to provide you with an update on our implementation roadmap and the team dedicated to supporting your organizations through this transition. 

Attached are the Implementation Lead (IL) Assignments and a high-level timeline encompassing key activities across Implementation, Organizational Change Management (OCM), and Training. This overview outlines the major milestones leading up to our Go-Live, with a focus on the following upcoming phases: 

• Train-the-Trainer/Super Users training: We are combining Train-the-Trainer and Super User sessions into a single, streamlined curriculum. Starting in late June 2026, multiple sessions will be offered throughout an eight-week window to accommodate schedules. 

• End User Instructor-Led Training: Beginning in August 2026, leading up to the CWS-CARES Version Go-Live in October 2026. 

The team is currently working on the detailed plans for these activities, and we look forward to sharing more information with you in May. 

With the successful restart of our monthly Implementation Readiness meetings on April 13, 2026 we have confirmed interim Implementation Lead (IL) assignments for both Child Welfare and Probation. Please find the current assignment roster attached. 

As we continue to onboard resources and assess the specific needs of each organization, please note that there may be further adjustments to these assignments in June. These updates will ensure that every partner receives the dedicated support required for a successful transition. 

We appreciate your ongoing partnership as we continue to prepare for these significant milestones. 

Action Required:  
No action is required.

Regional Training Academy Leads:

April 16, 2026 UPDATE: Reminder: Send an email to the CWDS Customer Relations mailbox at CWS_CustRel@otsi.ca.gov to request CWS-CARES FCED Hub access for RTA staff.

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The CWS-CARES Project recently launched the FCED Hub, a centralized resource for information related to Foster Care Eligibility and Determination (FCED). FCED is the interface between CalSAWS and CWS-CARES to facilitate the determination of foster care funding in California, and replaces or augments information currently provided by social workers to eligibility workers. The FCED Hub includes eligibility demonstrations, FAQs, meeting recordings and materials, and CalSAWS FCED newsletters. We invite you to access the Hub to learn more about the FCED interface and better prepare for the upcoming implementation of CWS-CARES. 

How to Access the FCED Hub 
Regional Training Academy Leads can access the Hub by creating an account on the CWDS website:  

1. Sign up at Account Sign Up | CWDS  
2. Enter your name, email, county, and create a password 
3. Select the county from the dropdown that best represents your region 
4. Log in using your CWDS credentials  
5. Navigate to the CWDS Portals page and enter the FCED Hub  

Once you have created an account, you will have access to all resources on the CWDS website, including the Hub. 

Requesting Access for RTA Staff 

RTA Leads are responsible for requesting access to the FCED Hub on behalf of their staff. To request access for RTA staff, email Customer Relations at CWS_CustRel@otsi.ca.gov with their full name, email address, and RTA region. Staff will receive an email communication with instructions to create a CWDS account and log in. 

Action Required

Email Customer Relations at CWS_CustRel@otsi.ca.gov to request FCED Hub access for RTA staff.

All SPOCs, Technical Contacts, and SBC Administrators:

The California Department of Technology (CDT) has scheduled maintenance on Saturday, April 25, 2026, beginning at 6:00 AM and concluding at 10:00 AM. During the maintenance window, CDT will apply Standard Monthly OS Security Patches to SBCS Infrastructure Servers. There is no anticipated outage for this maintenance; however, CDT is asking that everyone log off from the Citrix SBC system, if not actively using it during the maintenance window.

Action Required

If users experience any issues with CWS/CMS, please follow your county process for reporting issues or you may contact the IBM Boulder Help Desk at 1-800-428-8268.

ALL SPOCs, Technical Contacts and CAD Contacts:

The California Department of Technology (CDT) has scheduled monthly Microsoft security patching. The patching begins on Friday, April 17, 2026, at 8:00 PM and concludes on Saturday, April 18, 2026, at 1:00 AM. The activity will cause interruptions to the Business Objects (BO) servers within the patching window, potentially causing some BO reports to fail to send, or automated scripts may fail to retrieve.

Action Required

Review scheduled BO reports and reschedule report jobs to avoid the scheduled maintenance window. Rerun the missed report jobs, if necessary.

Contact the IBM Help Desk (800-428-8268) to report any issues with your Business Objects content.

ALL SPOCs, Technical Contacts and CAD Contacts:

The California Department of Technology (CDT) has scheduled maintenance of the SAFE Cloud service. The maintenance begins on Saturday, April 25, 2026, at 8:00 PM and concludes on Sunday, April 26, 2026, at 2:00 AM. The activity will cause interruptions in the SAFE Cloud service. Some Business Objects (BO) reports will fail to send, or automated scripts may fail to retrieve from SAFE during this scheduled maintenance.

Action Required

All users should logoff of the SAFE Cloud service prior to the start of the stated maintenance timeframe. Please check on your scheduled BO SAFE reports and automated FTP scripts. If needed, re-run the reports and scripts.

Contact the IBM Help Desk (800-428-8268) to report any issues with your Business Objects content in SAFE.