CWDS Bulletins

All SPOCs and Technical Contacts:

Effective January 29, 2026, CARES-Live 2.8.35 Release is Scheduled to Move into Production

The CARES-Live team has scheduled release activity that will interrupt connectivity to the CARES-Live application. The release activity will begin at 5:00 PM on Thursday, January 29, 2026, and conclude on Friday, January 30, 2026, at 4:00 AM. During this release, the CARES-Live team will focus on application changes.

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

CARES-Live 2.8.35:

• This release addresses security findings and other infrastructure updates and security patches not visible to CARES-Live users. 

Action Required

If users experience any issues with the CWS-CARES, please follow your county process for reporting issues. CWS-CARES 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 Pilot County RFA Implementation Coordinators and SPOCs:

The CWS-CARES team has scheduled maintenance activity for the CWS-CARES production environment for Tuesday, February 3, 2026, beginning at 5:00 PM and concluding at 8:00 PM. During the maintenance window, the CWS-CARES Resource Family Approval (RFA) Application Submission, Review, and Approval Process will be accessible for pilot counties Fresno, Placer, and Santa Clara.

During the maintenance window, document related functionality in the CARES application will not be accessible.

Action Required

No action required from end-users during this maintenance window.

If users experience any issues with the CWS-CARES, please follow your county process for reporting issues. CWS-CARES 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.

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

In this Weekly Digest (click the link for more information):

• Final Reminder: Register for the CWS-CARES Stakeholder Briefing #5

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Final Reminder: Register for the CWS-CARES Stakeholder Briefing #5

Stakeholder Briefing #5 will take place on Wednesday, January 28, 2026, from 10:00 AM – 12:00 Noon. Please forward this registration link and instructions to all organization staff and end users who may be impacted by the transition to CWS-CARES. View the agenda and register for the Stakeholder Briefing here: CWS-CARES Stakeholder Briefing #5: January 2026 | Registration.

Registration Instructions for Stakeholder Briefing #5:

• Register for the January 28, 2026 Stakeholder Briefing at this link: CWS-CARES Stakeholder Briefing #5: January 2026 | Registration. Registration is required to attend.
• After registering, you will receive a confirmation email from CalHHS Office of Technology and Solutions Integration within a few minutes. An example of the email is shown in the screenshot below.
• This confirmation email includes the "Join event" link at the bottom (blue arrow in the screenshot) and a calendar .ics attachment at the top (red box in the screenshot).
• Add the webinar to your calendar. The webinar will NOT be automatically added to your calendar. You must click the .ics attachment and manually add it to your calendar.

Please email Customer Relations at CWS_CustRel@otsi.ca.gov with any questions or if you need assistance registering for the January 28, 2026, Stakeholder Briefing.

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Share Your Feedback and Subscribe 

Thank you for following our progress! Share your feedback on this CWS-CARES Weekly Digest here: CWS-CARES Weekly Digest Feedback Form. Subscribe to future issues here: CWS-CARES Weekly Digest Subscription Form.

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Action Required

We request that all CWS-CARES Single Point of Contacts (SPOCs) and Implementation Coordinators coordinate and distribute the CWS-CARES Weekly Digest to all staff impacted by CWS-CARES, at their discretion.

All SPOCs, Technical Contacts, and SBC Administrators:

The California Department of Technology (CDT) has scheduled maintenance on Saturday, January 31, 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 SBC Administrators:

The California Department of Technology (CDT) has scheduled maintenance on Tuesday, January 20, 2026, beginning at 6:00 PM and concluding at 10:00 PM. During the maintenance window, CDT will apply system security updates to SBCS Infrastructure Netscalers. CDT is informing everyone to log off from the Citrix SBC system 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 and Technical Contacts:

As stated in the communication sent by CWDS Customer Relations on December 23, 2025, the CWDS Executive Leadership Team has decided to cancel the CWS-CARES Production Pilot. In place of the Production Pilot, CWS-CARES will implement a Production Simulation environment.

The primary focus of CWS/CMS Release 9.7 was to enable IBM to deliver the technical solution required for the planned CWS-CARES Production Pilot. Since this activity is no longer needed for the newly planned CWS-CARES Production Simulation environment, CWS/CMS Release 9.7 is no longer required.

The next scheduled CWS/CMS release will be Release 9.8. The primary focus of this release is to add a mechanism that will allow CWS/CMS to be placed in a read-only state when CWS-CARES is implemented in October 2026. The CWDS Project is currently working with IBM to determine how many, if any, Data Quality improvement System Change Requests (SCRs) can be included with this release.

Release 9.8 is the projected final release for CWS/CMS. It is tentatively scheduled for implementation in June 2026. Further information will be announced as the release details are finalized.

Action Required

No action is required. Please forward any questions to CWDS Customer Relations.

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, January 24, 2026, at 8:00 PM and concludes on Sunday, January 25, 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.

All SPOCs, Technical Contacts, and CAD Contacts:

A service on the CWS/CMS CAD BusinessObjects (BO) server did not start correctly last night, January 12, 2026. The service was restarted this morning, and all functionality has been restored.

However, all scheduled reports did not run last night. Please review and manually rerun the missing reports.

Action Required

Manually invoke the scheduled BO reports from last night.

Contact Chris Lovejoy if you require more information regarding this issue.

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

In this Weekly Digest:

• New CWS-CARES Data Dictionary Update Available and 2026 Office Hours Schedule
• Reminder: Register for the CWS-CARES Stakeholder Briefing #5
• CWS-CARES is Observing Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday, January 19, 2026

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New CWS-CARES Data Dictionary Update Available and 2026 Office Hours Schedule
An updated version of the CWS-CARES Data Dictionary (V0.08) is available starting today, January 12, 2026:

• CWS-CARES Data Dictionary V0.08 will be available on the Microsoft Teams Channel: CARES Data Dictionary under Files.   
• The Intro tab of the CWS-CARES Data Dictionary highlights all updates in the new version, making it easy to see what’s new or changed.

Update: CWS-CARES Data Dictionary & SqlDBM Office Hours in 2026

As we move into 2026, Office Hours for the CWS-CARES Data Dictionary and SqlDBM will be provided through the Tableau/Salesforce CARES102 Environment Office Hours.

These Office Hours are held every Wednesday and will continue to offer a forum for questions, discussion, and guidance.

For questions related to CARES102 Office Hours, please contact: otsicwdsanalyticstransition@otsi.ca.gov.

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Reminder: Register for the CWS-CARES Stakeholder Briefing #5

Stakeholder Briefing #5 will take place on January 28, 2026 from 10 AM – 12 PM. Please forward this registration invitation to all organization staff and end users who may be impacted by the transition to CWS-CARES. Register here: CWS-CARES Stakeholder Briefing #5: January 2026 | Registration.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Q: What is the CWS-CARES Stakeholder Briefing?
A: The Stakeholder Briefing is a series of webinars with Project updates and system demonstrations. These webinars are an opportunity for all stakeholders to engage directly with CWS-CARES leadership.

Q: Who can attend CWS-CARES Stakeholder Briefings?
A: All stakeholders are invited to attend the Stakeholder Briefing. This includes end users, county leadership, Tribal representatives, SPOCs, Implementation Coordinators, and more.

Q: How do I register for Stakeholder Briefing #5?
A: Please register using the following link: CWS-CARES Stakeholder Briefing #5: January 2026 | Registration. Registration takes less than a minute by entering your name, email, and county or organization. Once registration is complete, a meeting notice with the session information will be automatically sent to the email provided. Registration is required to attend.

If you require any accommodations to attend this meeting, such as an ASL interpreter, please notify CWDS Customer Relations at: CWS_CustRel@otsi.ca.gov at least one week in advance, or as soon as possible.

Stakeholder Briefing #5 agenda:

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CWS-CARES is Observing Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday, January 19, 2026

In commemoration of Martin Luther King Jr., Project communications may be delayed on this date. The Weekly Digest will not be distributed on Monday, January 19, 2026, and will resume January 26, 2026.

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Share Your Feedback and Subscribe 

Thank you for following our progress! Share your feedback on this CWS-CARES Weekly Digest here: CWS-CARES Weekly Digest Feedback Form. Subscribe to future issues here: CWS-CARES Weekly Digest Subscription Form.

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Action Required

We request that all CWS-CARES Single Point of Contacts (SPOCs) and Implementation Coordinators coordinate and distribute the CARES Weekly Digest to all staff impacted by CWS-CARES, at their discretion.

All Pilot County RFA Implementation Coordinators and SPOCs:

The CWS-CARES team has scheduled maintenance activity for the CWS-CARES production environment for Friday, January 9, 2026, beginning at 6:00 AM and concluding at 8:00 AM. During the maintenance window, the CWS-CARES Resource Family Approval (RFA) Application Submission, Review, and Approval Process will be accessible for pilot counties Fresno, Placer, and Santa Clara.

During the maintenance window, document related functionality in the CARES application will not be accessible.

Action Required

No action required from end-users during this maintenance window.

If users experience any issues with the CWS-CARES, please follow your county process for reporting issues. CWS-CARES 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.