Helping schools keep students safe
By the Numbers
Action plans created in the first month after SchoolSafety.gov was released
The Challenge
Over the past decade, K–12 schools across the United States have experienced 464 shooting incidents. In 2018, after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history, the Federal Commission on School Safety recommended that the federal government share best practices to advance school safety.
The Solution
Working with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), USDS employed a human‑centered design approach to understand the needs of schools and how best to share school safety information with them. With this research, USDS partnered with DHS to launch SchoolSafety.gov in February 2020, a website that empowers emergency managers and K–12 administrators with the information they need to improve school safety. “Because every school community has its own unique needs, SchoolSafety.gov equips decision makers with resources for developing, customizing, and implementing actionable school safety plans,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos.
Press
More projects
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Cross-agencyOptimizing benefits for families
Working alongside The Department of Treasury and the White House, we built ChildTaxCredit.gov to educate families about the expanded Earned Income Credit and Child Tax Credit. The USDS team relied on in-depth research to create a site that is accessible, easy-to-read, and provides resources to find free tax services.
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Health and Human ServicesCritical code: building COVID-19 vaccine finder tools
With the American public eager for COVID-19 vaccinations, The White House partnered with the U.S. Digital Service, the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, the Department of Health & Human Services, and Boston Children’s Hospital to launch a fleet of tools connecting people to life-saving vaccines.
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Veterans AffairsSimplifying Veteran‑facing services through VA.gov
Each month, over 10 million people attempt to access the digital tools and content at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and have historically struggled to find what they’re looking for. Digital modernization efforts needed to focus on improving the user experience.
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Health and Human ServicesEmpowering beneficiaries with their own health data
Leveraging CMS APIs, providers can view of their patients’ full healthcare history without patient intervention. Providers save valuable time that they can better spend talking to patients and preventing conflicts or gaps in care.
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Health and Human ServicesModernizing the Medicare Payment System
Eight million lines of COBOL and 2.5 million lines of assembly running on 15 mainframes. 4.5 percent of the entire American economy is fueled by Medicare payments and 53 million people depend on it for their healthcare.
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Cross-agencyChanging how the government hires technical talent
We helped develop a process that allows HR to leverage subject matter experts to evaluate candidates for specialized roles. The result restores fair and open access for all applicants, shortens the hiring timeline, and ensures applicants are truly qualified.