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Ten of Diamonds · Government · Social Services

ACF ORR Case Management

A modern case management application for unaccompanied children receiving Home Study and Post-Release Services through the Office of Refugee Resettlement.

Role

Product Designer

Timeline

2026

Focus

Case Management · Document Workflows · 508

ACF ORR Case Management application cover

The hand I was dealt

The Administration for Children and Families and Office of Refugee Resettlement provides Home Study and Post-Release Services for unaccompanied children who were displaced and entered the country without a guardian. The child is then placed in a shelter, then found a sponsor to receive housing and care — what is called Post-Release Services. Through this application, there have been 27,394 children that have received services, and as of October 2025, 123,640 children were released to sponsors.

The service providers — Case Managers, Intake Coordinators, Case Leads, Regional Supervisors, Case Admins, and NCC staff — currently use a legacy system known as UAC Portal to provide documentation about the child to ORR.

ACF needed a modern application for case managers and service providers to manage and submit documents for the child in one place.

My contributions

  • Owned Global Search end-to-end, from research and kickoff through final designs for desktop and mobile
  • Designed the Requests and Approvals submission flow, including multi-reviewer workflows and the Submission Details accordion
  • Led Notification Center and Provider Communication future-state ideation, including AI-assisted conversation summaries
  • Owned the NCC experience, designing child list view, incidents and flags, and uploaded files access for National Call Center staff
  • Designed the External Transfer Request drawer and case-status flow for Home Study provider administrators
  • Designed Soft Delete for documents and uploaded files, including reason-for-deletion dropdowns and ORR audit visibility
The full story
Global Search overview — research findings showing users mostly identify children by A#, and search design requirements including expanded nav bar, mobile support, and limited child profile view
Global Search design process — Feature Kickoff Workshop in Mural, showing iterations and team discussion around search result display, accessibility, and no-results states
Global Search design iterations — search button explorations and mobile search placement options including menu drawer and nav bar
Global Search final designs — desktop screens showing tooltip on display, mid-type search, A# search, Portal ID search, Referral ID search, multiple results, and limited child profile view; mobile screens showing child profile, search bar, A# search, and multiple results
Requests and Approvals feature overview — problem statement showing manual email and spreadsheet workarounds for extension requests, virtual visits, NOCs, and referrals; CNRE Forms screens with Submission Details panel expanded
Requests and Approvals ideation and solutions — workflow diagram with open questions, wireframe sketches of Submission Details accordion collapsed and expanded, and initial mockups of the accordion component
Notifications Center and Provider Communication features — overview of questions that drove the design, initial and future-state Notification Center mockups with CNRE review requests and urgency indicators
Notifications Center and Provider Communication ideation — AI-assisted future state with conversation summaries in the Notification Center, and Provider Communication side panel in the CNRE form review
NCC Experience overview — design considerations for National Call Center users, including HS PRS app landing page and child case list view
NCC Experience — child case list view with A# and address columns, Incidents and Flags page with notifications of concern, and Uploaded Files page
Request External Transfer overview — problem statement with user research quote, Home Study External Transfer Requests list, and child profile with expanded Request External Transfer drawer
Request External Transfer design considerations — drawer with reason-for-transfer dropdown, and read-only view of the External Transfer Request after submittal with case status changed to Pending External Transfer
Soft Delete Documents with reasons for ORR — overview of deletion rules, Documents tab showing the delete action, and Delete Document modal with reason-for-deletion dropdown and description field
Soft Delete Files with reasons for ORR — Uploaded Files tab with delete action and Delete Uploaded File modal with reason-for-deletion dropdown, description field, and warning that the file will be removed from UAC Portal and Horizon
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