Administration defends October CWS CARES launch, warns long delay would cost up to $1.2B

State leaders and vendor partners presented detailed readiness metrics and a release plan for CWS CARES and rejected CWDA’s immediate proposal for a 6–8 month pause.

Department of Social Services and OTSI officials acknowledged red indicators in project health metrics but said 26 of 36 statutory milestones linked to the project's current baseline had been met and that the remaining critical and high defects are slated for closure before go‑live. Brandon Hansard (OTSI) described recent design decisions — moving to a production simulation for county testing, reprocurement of an implementation vendor, and additional in‑person training — and said the project holds a formal go/no‑go decision on Sept. 29 and expects to meet the Oct. 26 statewide launch date if checkpoints are satisfied.

Jennifer Troia (CDSS) warned that delaying the launch could be more expensive and risk child safety because the legacy CWS CMS is running on obsolete technology. CDSS estimated potential delay exposures of between $558 million and $1.2 billion in General Fund depending on length and carry costs for operating two systems, and stressed the state’s commitment to addressing essential safety stories prior to any go‑live decision.

Vendors Deloitte and KPMG described their roles in development, QA and training and outlined post‑go‑live support plans, including 30 days of on‑site support and 60 days of virtual support. Officials said a code freeze is scheduled for Sept. 25 to protect training materials and that refresher training is planned to begin Oct. 8 if the freeze holds.