CWDS Bulletins

CWS-CARES Calendar - December 2024 to February 2025

December 06, 2024 Communications
To: Child Welfare Directors, Child Welfare Director-Alternates, Tribal Leadership, Probation Leadership, and Core Constituents  CC: All CARES SPOCs and Implementation Coordinators

Child Welfare Leadership and Core Constituents,

As part of our ongoing effort to provide you greater insight into upcoming meetings for the CWS-CARES project, please see the updated CWS-CARES Meeting Calendar for December 2024, January 2025, and February 2025. This calendar includes all meetings hosted by the CWS-CARES project, including Core Constituent demonstrations, implementation meetings, and key workgroups. 

This calendar includes the following Core Constituent sessions:
  • Prototype Demonstrations: Core Constituents see some of the feedback they provided in the Prototype Demonstrations reflected in CWS-CARES and provide further feedback on the developed product.  
  • Build Review Demonstrations: Core Constituents see some of the feedback they provided in the Prototype Demonstrations reflected in CWS-CARES and provide further feedback on the developed product. 
  • Milestone User Feedback: Participants test specific functionalities for a subset of milestones in CWS-CARES, scheduled for January 6 - January 17, 2025. Core Constituents were requested to recruit participants for this feedback activity. Note: Extended User Scenario Testing (EUST) 2, where Participants test end-to-end real-world scenarios in CWS-CARES, begins in March 2025 and will be reflected on the March calendar. 

Action Required
Please share this information with those at your organization you feel should be informed. Note: This calendar is point-in-time and subject to change. The CWS-CARES project aims to deliver a sustainable, more real-time calendar solution that will be accessible to all meeting participants and leadership in the future.

If you have any questions, please contact CWS_CustRel@osi.ca.gov. 
Update, CARES, CWS-CARES

CWS-CARES Scheduled Maintenance - Dec.11, 2024 | 5 PM - 7 PM

December 05, 2024 Communications
All Pilot County RFA Implementation Coordinators and SPOCs:
The CWS-CARES team has scheduled maintenance activity for the CWS-CARES production environment for Wednesday, December 11, 2024, beginning at 5:00 PM and concluding at 7:00 PM. During the maintenance window, the CWS-CARES Resource Family Approval (RFA) Application Submission, Review, and Approval Process will be accessible for pilot counties Contra Costa, 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.
Maintenance, CARES, CWS-CARES

CWS-CARES New Resources to Support your Work

December 05, 2024 Communications
CWS-CARES SPOCs Implementation Coordinators, OCM Coordinators and Core Constituent Points of Contact:
We have created two new resources to help you understand the CWS-CARES user feedback process and effectively communicate within your organization about CWS-CARES.
 
Attached, you will find: 
Core Constituent Infographic: A guide to understanding how Core Constituents engage with CWS-CARES, including: 
  • The Core Constituent Participation Model 
  • How Core Constituents provide feedback on CWS-CARES 
  • Opportunities to stay informed 
CWS-CARES Communications Infographic: A guide on how to participate in and support CWS-CARES communications. It covers: 
  • An overview of the three main CWS-CARES communications roles 
  • Opportunities to stay informed 
How to Use These Resources 
Both infographics are attached. We encourage you to save them for reference and print them as needed.  
 
Action Required 
If you have any questions, need clarification, or have any accessibility issues, please do not hesitate to contact Customer Relations at CWS_CustRel@otsi.ca.gov. 
Announcement, Implementation, CWS-CARES

CARES-Live Scheduled Outage

December 05, 2024 Communications
All SPOCs and Technical Contacts:
In support of the CWS/CMS Release 9.5 deployment scheduled for Saturday, December 14, 2024, from 5:00 AM to 1:00 PM, the CARES-Live application will also not be available during this CWS/CMS scheduled deployment.

Action Required
If users experience any issues with CARES-Live outside of this scheduled outage, 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.
Maintenance, CARES-Live

CWS/CMS: Release 9.5 and 9.5.0 (15-Day) Informational Bulletin

December 02, 2024 Customer Relations
The mandatory VB6 version of Release 9.5 will be implemented on Saturday, Saturday, December 14, 2024.

Coexistent county CWSCMS.MSI file availability:

The CWSCMS.MSI file will be available by Friday, December 6, 2024, for technical staff to begin testing the installation of the release.  The code will be located on the CWSDFSr share in the following location:
  •  \CODEDIST\Staging\R95
Perform any necessary testing, but do not install countywide before December 14, 2024. The new release will not work with the database until then.

Dedicated County CWSCMS.MSI file delivery:

By Wednesday, November 27, 2024, dedicated county users should start seeing the CWSCMS.MSI file copied to their workstations during Windows logon. Technical staff can verify that they have received the file by checking for its presence in the C:\CACW\R95 folder. This file must exist on the workstation for the installation of Release R9.5 to take place on or after December 14, 2024.

Release 9.5 documents are located on the CWDS website. The xTools file and related README file are located on the CWDS Training Portal. More documents will be added as the release go-live date approaches. 
 
CWS/CMS, Release

CWS-CARES Release 0.15 Production Release

December 02, 2024 Communications
All SPOCs and Technical Contacts:

EFFECTIVE December 16, 2024, CWS-CARES RELEASE 0.15 PRODUCTION RELEASE IS PLANNED TO MOVE INTO PRODUCTION

The CWS-CARES team has scheduled release activity that will interrupt connectivity to the CWS-CARES Resource Family Approval (RFA) Application Submission, Review, and Approval Process for pilot counties Contra Costa, Fresno, Placer, and Santa Clara. The release activity is planned to begin at 5:00 PM on December 16, 2024, and conclude at 11:00 PM. During this scheduled outage, users in pilot counties will not be able to access the CARES RFA application.

CWS-CARES Release 0.15:
The purpose of this release is to primarily deliver fixes for known issues, enhancements to behind-the-scenes functionality and security improvements to CWS-CARES Resource Family Approval (RFA) Application Submission, Review, and Approval Process.
CWDS is excited to share the new RFA features that are planned to be available following the implementation of CWS-CARES Release 0.15 on December 16, 2024, to the CARES-RFA Pilot County users. These new features are derived from user feedback as well as project planned enhancements.
As a resource to pilot counties, over the next few weeks, your organization can expect to receive information regarding a Webinar along with an updated Participant and Quick Reference Guide. These resources will provide the system users with details of the features/functionality that have been added since the last production release. 

RFA Application Process:
The RFA Application process is the Receipt, Record, Submission, and Assignment of an Application. The RFA Application process was selected as the first software build for CARES. CARES will ultimately replace the legacy Child Welfare System CWS/CMS. The RFA Application Process will operate in a totally new Production Environment without integrating with other legacy systems, such as the CWS/CMS and CARES-Live applications.

RFA Application Process Features:
  • Allows an applicant or County staff member to initiate an emergency or standard application to become a resource family home
  • Creates a facility profile that tracks required information to complete this process, including background check results, completion of orientation and training hours, physical home assessment, and family evaluation
  • Aggregates information into a report to recommend approval or disapproval of a resource family application
Action Required
RFA Pilot County users review new features in the CWS-CARES Production Environment after December 17, 2024.
All Release Notes, including information for this release once available, can be found here: RFA Application Process Release Notes and Interim Processes
Product Release, Announcement, CARES, CWS-CARES

CWS/CMS: November 2024 Workstation Patches

November 26, 2024 Communications
All Co-Existent County SPOCs and Technical Contacts:
As requested, here is the list of patches that IBM tested and applied to the Dedicated County Workstations for November 2024:
  • MS Windows 10 22H2 Patches
    MS24-NOV: Cumulative Update for Windows 10 Version 22H2 - Windows 10 Version 22H2 - KB5046613 (x64) Important 
  • MS Windows 2016 (LTSB) Patches
    MS24-NOV: Cumulative Update for Windows 10 Version 1607 - Windows 10 Version 1607 LTSB - KB5046612 (x64) Important
  • MS Office 2016 Patches
    MS24-NOV: Security Update for Microsoft Excel 2016 - Excel 2016 - KB5002653 Important
    MS24-NOV: Security Update for Microsoft Word 2016 - Word 2016 - KB5002619 Important
  • Office 365 Patches
    Office 365 Version 16.0.18129.20116 Available - Current Channel - Office 365 Important Unspecified
  • Google Chrome Patches
    Google Chrome 131.0.6778.70 High 
Action Required
No action is required. Informational only.
Update, Maintenance, CWS/CMS

CWS/CMS: Education Provider Information from the California Department of Education (CDE)

November 22, 2024 Customer Relations

What is Impacted: CWS/CMS Application

On Friday, December 6, 2024, from 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM, the CDE Interface will run to update Education Provider information for public schools, private schools, and school districts in the CWS/CMS application. This update applies to CDE school information only. School information manually created by a CWS/CMS user will not be affected. During this time, users may be unable to perform Education Provider searches in the CWS/CMS application.

Due to differences in data and formatting between CDE and the CWS/CMS application, some otherwise valid Education Providers may be end-dated.  If this occurs, please refer to the Work Around section below. A list of all end-dated Education Providers will be sent to the SPOCs via email as soon as they become available.

Additional Notes:
Code Table Refresh is not required.

Work Around
If an existing CDE Education Provider has been end-dated because of this process, users will need to conduct a search for the current Education Provider and create a new Education Notebook for the client.

Contact
CWDS Customer Relations

CWS/CMS, Bulletin, Education

CWS/CMS: Business Objects Issue and Workaround – UPDATE

November 21, 2024 Communications
All SPOCs, Technical Contacts, and CAD Contacts:

November 21, 2024 UPDATE: After working with the Business Objects vendor, IBM and the CWDS Infrastructure team are reporting that Business Objects is now up and operational, with a few limited issues / differences that remain to be resolved.

Please Note: The login screens will look a bit different. Generic SAP screens will be used temporarily and will be updated at a later date (please see screenshot below).

In addition, there appears to be an issue with transferring reports from Rich Client to the server and back. IBM and the Infrastructure team will work with the vendor as a fix for this specific continuing issue becomes available.

Screenshot of the generic login screen:

__________________________________________________________________________________________
November 20, 2024 UPDATE:  Several issues have been identified after the installation of the Business Objects patch upgrade.  Work is taking place now to resolve those issues and a communication will be shared once resolved.   
_______________________________________________________________________

November 20, 2024 FINAL UPDATE: The installation of the Business Objects patch upgrade has completed. Business Objects is now accessible; however, users may experience degraded performance while the Business Objects server catches up on the scheduled jobs from this morning. The CWDS Infrastructure team and IBM are monitoring for potential issues.

NOTE: Web Intelligence Rich Client users may need to update their workstation installation of the client.
_______________________________________________________________________

November 20, 2024 UPDATE: This is a reminder that the Business Objects production environment is not available this morning, to install a patch update. A follow-up communication will be sent out once the environment has become available, estimated to occur at around 12:00 Noon.
________________________________________________________________________

UPDATE: We are applying a patch to address this Business Objects issue, which will be implemented in both the Training and Production Environments. These environments will be unavailable during the following patch periods:
  • Training Environment  - November 19th, 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM
  • Production Environment - November 20th, 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM
Action Required
If users experience any issues please follow your county process for reporting issues or you may contact the IBM Boulder Help Desk at 1-800-428-8268.
_____________________________________________________________________________
An issue has been discovered with the current version of Business Objects used with the CWS/CMS application.

Issue Description:
Whenever a numeric field, such as government entity code, is used as a condition in a data provider (query), the query will run correctly the first time. Whenever the data provider is edited, the system will return a type mismatch error and require the user to remove and re-add the condition. The query will then run, as long as it is not edited again.

This only appears to be an issue with numeric fields; character fields, such as Client Name, do not experience this issue. Once the query is run, it operates normally as long as the user does not go back and edit the data provider. The user can refresh the data and save, as well as edit the report formatting, without issue.

Issue Resolution:
A patch level update will be required to resolve the issue. The CWDS Office and IBM are evaluating the next Business Objects patch to determine if it will resolve the issue, without generating any new issues. There is currently no estimated time of when the patch will be implemented. Additional updates will be sent out as new information is received.

Workaround:
When Business Objects informs the user of a type mismatch error after a numeric field is used as a condition in a data provider, and the data provider is edited, then the user must remove and re-enter the condition. The query will run, without issue, as long as the data provider is not edited again.

Action Required
Until the issue is corrected with the appropriate patch update, users will need to perform the workaround listed above, by removing and re-entering the condition when they receive a type mismatch error message.
Update, Maintenance, CWS/CMS

CDT Service Desk Bulletin – SBCS Infrastructure Servers Security Patching

November 21, 2024 Communications
All SPOCs, Technical Contacts, and SBC Administrators:
The California Department of Technology (CDT) has scheduled maintenance on Saturday, November 30, 2024, 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.
Maintenance, CDT