The Office of Technology and Solutions Integration (OTSI), along with the Department of Social Services and the Health and Human Services Agency, have asked the Legislature for $357.3 million to continue the Child Welfare Services — California Automated Response and Engagement System (CWS-CARES) project. The project is a major modernization of the state’s Comprehensive Child Welfare Information System to meet compliance requirements the current system fails to meet. It will be used by all 58 counties, requiring substantial investment in coordination and training.
CWS-CARES is scheduled to go live with version 1 in October, for which the project’s Budget Change Proposal (BCP) said the state will need to train 25,000 users. This funding request will also kickstart procurements for version 2.
The proposed funding breaks down like this:
- Contract support services: $228.7 million, $100 million of which will go toward the platform-as-a-service system integrator
- Hardware and software: $39.8 million, $34.8 million of which is for Salesforce
- Core constituent participation: $36.3 million
- Operating expenses and equipment: $22.4 million
- Staffing: $19.8 million for about 100 positions
- County consultant services: $9.6 million
- Independent project oversight consultant contract services: $800,000
Though Salesforce will be used for applications, a significant piece of the project is creating the CARES Data Infrastructure to “manage data quality, enforce business rules, manage content, control data exchange with third parties, monitor program trends and evaluate program outcomes.”
The state will also need to develop APIs to handle data conversion, provide a data exchange gateway and house database and analytics software.
The Legislature will now consider BCPs as it crafts the budget; funding requests may be fully funded, partially funded or rejected. Industry Insider — California has compiled a list of all IT-related BCPs here.
