behavior technician

board certified behavior analyst

entry level behavior technician

administrative clerk

registered behavior technician

Autism Learning Partners

I had the opportunity to work at Autism Learning Partners, and while there were certain positive aspects to my experience, there were also significant drawbacks that made it an overall okay company to work for.

One of the primary concerns I encountered during my time at Autism Learning Partners was the lack of comprehensive training. New employees are given minimal guidance and are typically thrust into the field after just 2-3 observations or shadowing sessions with a more experienced colleague. This approach might work for some individuals, but it can be challenging and overwhelming for many, particularly considering the sensitive nature of working with individuals with autism. A more structured and thorough training program would have been beneficial.

Furthermore, the work environment at Autism Learning Partners left much to be desired. Most of the time, employees find themselves working in isolation with the families they serve, with supervisors making only occasional appearances. This lack of a consistent support system can lead to feelings of isolation and hinder professional growth.

The absence of a robust work culture was another significant drawback. Interactions with coworkers were limited, and you rarely had the opportunity to connect with your colleagues unless you were involved in training new hires. A vibrant work culture can contribute significantly to employee morale and engagement, but this was notably lacking at Autism Learning Partners.

One of the most significant issues I faced during my tenure at the company was the inconsistency in case assignments and hours. Despite making repeated requests for more cases and hours, I often found myself with an inadequate workload. This inconsistency can be financially burdensome for employees and cause uncertainty in their employment. Additionally, it was disheartening to learn that another colleague in the same role as mine was being compensated significantly more, even though I held relevant certifications.

Lastly, the frequent cancellation of sessions by parents added another layer of unpredictability to the job. This not only affected our ability to meet our work-hour requirements but also made it difficult to establish consistent routines and rapport with the clients we served.

In summary, my experience with Autism Learning Partners was marked by a lack of sufficient training, isolation in the field, a deficient work culture, inconsistent case assignments, and issues with compensation equity. While I had the opportunity to make a positive impact on the lives of individuals with autism, these organizational challenges significantly dampened my overall satisfaction with the company. I hope that Autism Learning Partners takes these concerns into consideration and works towards improving the experience for its dedicated employees in the future.

As a behavior technician I received 40 hours of training along with overlaps with clients before taking over for another therapist. As a technician working 1:1 with kiddos you are responsible for materials to keep clients engaged. While you can ask parents to obtain some specific materials (eg flash cards, picture books, a table), creativity and recycling went a long way to find novel toys or activities on a budget.

Each client has a supervisor so I work with many different supervisors at the same time. Communication is relatively simple as emails and text is acceptable. Best practice is to immediately text supervisors then follow up with an email. Worst case scenario is there is a cancellation, and a supervisor shows up but wasn't notified. Supervisors are responsible for reporting so precise and accurate data collection was very critical. Supervisors. staff support, and the clinical directors were available via email for any issues and were supportive. One minor benefit was same-day cancellations would be eligible for half pay as long as reported appropriately, something not every employer in the field may do.

ALP is a large company and it came with benefits to management and organizational structure. Some challenges were timing of sessions and trying to obtain full-time hours. In a case where you have clients within 30 minutes it can be a challenge with traffic. As for hours, It appeared dependent on client availability: many are scheduled for after school, so it can take a while to get many clients to work with.

The most challenging and rewarding part is working directly with children. Pairing up with kids is a fun process and sessions should remain fun. Kids generally have high energy so the job requires you to be adaptable. Playing on the floor, sitting, standing, running. It helps to be silly and animated (in addition, having an idea of current kids shows). Preference assessments occur often and lots of times difficulties with clients were down to myself not running them and not providing enough stimulation.

Working in ABA can be incredibly meaningful, and the children are genuinely the best part of the job. I worked with amazing fellow BTs/RBTs and some incredible field trainers who were knowledgeable, supportive, and caring. There are also wonderful BCBAs who genuinely support their staff and clients.

However, prospective employees should be aware that this role can be extremely demanding emotionally, physically, and mentally. Work-life balance can be difficult, and although availability is discussed frequently, there may still be pressure regarding scheduling or assignments outside preferred hours. Burnout is very real in this field.

Transparency regarding new client assignments could also be improved. When presented with new cases, information may be limited to a client name, general location, and session time, which can make it difficult to fully understand what you are agreeing to in terms of needs, environment, fit, or expectations before accepting a case.

Hours can vary significantly depending on client cancellations, insurance, and case needs, which can create financial instability. While some of this is outside company control, support in navigating difficult cases or determining fit can feel inconsistent.

BCBA support varies greatly. Some are collaborative, involved, and supportive, while others may leave technicians feeling under-supported during difficult situations or unclear on role boundaries and expectations.

The most rewarding part of the role is client progress and meaningful relationships with children and coworkers. The hardest part is balancing the emotional demands, schedule instability, and burnout risk with compensation and long-term sustainability.

I started as a BT and was able to apply for an open position in client services eventually, so the upward mobility was good for me, and a lot of people that work in client services or in other administrative roles that I've talked to also started as BTs. However, there isn't a great increase in pay for moving up. They pay literal poverty wages. It's to the point where I'd like to stay for the work from home benefits, but have decided to move on because I literally can't afford to work here anymore. Working here actually drained my savings. If you ask for a raise you probably won't get it, or get a few cents. If you get promoted to an advanced coordinator you're lucky to get a whole dollar for a lot more work (more meetings, trainings each week on top of your scheduling duties). Oh, but you are eligible for bonuses! You can get a whole $7 bonus on your paycheck if you schedule your new hires on time! Which is entirely up to client availability and other factors out of your control sometimes.

The most frustrating part is they purposely hire more BTs than they need, so some BTs will be left without clients/hours, and it's really sad when BTs are emailing asking for hours and updates, and I have nothing to give them. I always ask for the exact amount of BTs I need, and they question me on it every single time and end up submitting for 3-5 more BTs than I asked for. They say it's because some aren't making it through training, which is true, but there are pretty much always 2-3 that are left without schedules. Even if I ask for 0 new hire BTs, they will send me 3 and expect me to pull 20 hours each out of nowhere for them. I feel bad for the BTs and understand their struggle. 

There are other things I could touch on but overall as a company, it definitely seems like collecting as much of that insurance money as possible is their biggest priority, not their employees or even the kiddos. Not sure where that money is going because it certainly isn't reflected in anyone's pay.

As a whole, I really love my job. It's rewarding because you get to help people. My schedule is daunting, and my biggest problem with the company is how they require you to make up missed sessions. The problem with this is that I've taken ONE week off and I am now scheduled to work all summer, weekends and all, in order to make up for one week missed. 

It's super flexible yet you feel like you are letting your client down every time you take off a session, and you feel like you're letting the parents down by putting the responsibility on them, even though babysitting is not our job.

As many places that are required to go through insurance, they need to have you at a certain amount of hours. While I could get my work done in about 2 hours, sometimes they schedule you up to 6 just because that's what the client was approved for, and that's simply too long to be doing any teaching. It's almost as if you are babysitting past a certain point.

I also have a huge problem with how compensation was explained to me upon starting the job.

I was told we would get paid clinical rate (minimum wage) between sessions if it's under 2 hours, but just recently found out (after 6+ months of working here) that I do not in fact get paid for the 2 hours, but for the DRIVE TIME between clients if it's under 2 hours. Similarly, I was told we get compensated for cancelled sessions but the way it was worded made it seem as if we got compensated for each individual cancelled session up to a certain amount of hours, when it actually depends on the amount of hours you worked in the entire day, not just the cancelled session.

They don't pay attention to your commute or how long you're gone from home throughout the day when scheduling you with clients. They do compensate for miles over a certain amount, but it almost never hits that amount. 

I worked here for almost 2 years, and it can be really stressful. You are responsible for make ups and cancellations, and even though it's not your fault, you will face the consequences if a family you work with is particularly fickle, and won't ever make up and is always cancelling, or if they're just non participatory during the session. They will work you insane hours, over 40 hours a week, without overtime, without making you full time, without benefits. Their policy is that because the hours fluctuate depending on the family, you cannot qualify until working those hours exactly for at least 6 months. So it's pretty much impossible to qualify for benefits as a BT. You will pretty much see no compensation from the drive time or distance, and although they say they will give you cases near you, you will end up having to drive over 20 miles to get where you need to go. You have to constantly check your email, respond to messages and calls, whether or not it is your day off, and there will be consequences if you do not respond immediately. The biggest problem with this, is I personally never felt like I could get out of my 'work mode,' on my days off, on vacation, still checking emails, still having to make calls. You'll have mandatory meetings at least once a month too which do sometimes fall on your non-workdays, they are compensated for, but at min wage.

The biggest bummer about all of this is that some of that families and kids you work with are so wonderful, and they are the ones most affected by the company's lack of care towards their employees, because you get high turnover rates, so their assigned BT and supervisor is bound to keep changing. 

The company overall is just really disorganized and trying to squeeze as much as they can out of their employees for as little as possible.

First off, my Supervisor is amazing, great listener, coach and communicator. That is the 2nd best thing. First best thing is helping kiddos get to their "firsts" with communication and behavior and seeing them light up on the good days. The challenging part of the job is not the hard days with my kiddos. 

The biggest challenge is the instability of the wages and NO paid time off (including holidays which your clients take off, you simply don't get paid) if you are part time. Part Time is based on hours worked which is dependent on clients keeping sessions and not cancelling. In my last few months I have only worked one week of my scheduled hours because at least one client (of 2) has cancelled at least 1 session. If they cxl same day there is a tiny compensation if the cxl meets criteria. This means that I have no idea what size my paycheck will be every single paycheck and that is why this job is very hard to afford to keep. I love the work, committed to it, but the stability of my personal financials is at risk. If you can take that risk, it is worth it. The daily stress of waiting to get a cancellation email has to be taken in stride as part of the job since you are already asked to do a TON of work at this entry level even though you are paid low, you are basically delivering patient care to the most vulnerable population and the Healthcare system does not put a value on it like they should (it is not my employers fault that the system is like this). 

I absolutely love working for ALP. My former companies lacked abiding by ethical standards and was driven by the business and sales, leaving the clients out of the picture. Over here, it is opposite. The structure of support definitely allows for you to feel you're moving in the right direction and always progressing. Also, what's not to love about a supportive leadership team. ALP takes pride in teaching and molding it's Behavior Technician, constantly providing support however possible to ensure their confidence. This further leads to better quality of care for the clients. There is always room for growth here, and the job culture allows for an openness and transparency you can't get anywhere else. In terms of turnover, it is low. We all work so hard to ensure everyones needs are met and that they know they are part of a family who cares. Although our trainings are not thorough, if you love to learn you'll do it on your own time (which I do). In terms of work life balance, it goes to say if you care about you're client you'll always do more than what's asked of you. Unfortunately, I love my clients and abide by my ethical and moral code to ensure I go to the extra mile for them. So, I don't know what a work life balance is, but hopefully one day I will. There is some burnout here and there, especially when the company is constantly growing and developing new technology. But this comes with the fact that ALP is in fact very new. It's former name PCFA had a bad rap and we've done everything in our power to turn that around. It takes a village, but thank goodness for our amazing team.

They pay for you to get RBT certification and helps if you want experience in the field. The company is run pretty badly. Benefits are advertised as for part time employees but that isn’t true. They will audit a random week for benefits and even if you worked 30 hours if that audit happens a week your hours are cut you will be denied them. Promised hours but will leave you with 2 a day while claiming to get you more clients for months. Most ever had in a day was 6 hours. To move up you need supervision hours via zoom which are rarely on pace for the months expectations carried out. Little to no training. Items needed for work aren’t very often given and they expect you to get many things even with barely any hours. Have supervision majority on zoom which doing this line of work is not feasible. High turnover for a reason. If you get another job they expect you to prioritize them even if they give no hours. Your availability is expected to be strictly followed and you WILL need a second job and due to the availability they make it difficult. Not compensated if clients cancel in advance. If your client goes on vacation they send you an unemployment link. You rarely ever see anyone in the company and won’t have any coworker relationships besides your supervisors you see a couple times a month. Have monthly zoom all hands meetings to discuss things that are always in the morning to early afternoon and may impact the few hours you get. Worked there over a year before being trained on how to handle violent clients. 

ALP thinks very highly of themselves but in actuality they have a bad reputation among people who have chosen them as there vendor. I hear it all the time how clients didn't like ALP working with their children because it wasn't structure enough or the concern they had with the Supervisor assigned to their child's case. As someone who worked with ALP for many years I agree, many of the Supervisor are not experienced enough to handle all the case's they get or just don't care about the child's needs. Many who work at ALP are there for less than a year and leave they are constantly hiring new people. ALP values degrees and credentials above anything else. Work experience dose not matter to this company at all. So you have a lot of individual who are book smart but has little to no experience working with children who have autism. The clients families picks up on this real fast and become unsatisfied with services, they leave and complain about their experience with ALP to people like me who work in other vendors. I can sympathize and understand with those clients because as a former employee of ALP I work there for many years and disagree with how Supervisors managed clients case's or the lack of management. Many BT'S would make complaints or report Supervisors who would not offer support to BT'S that needed help there were certain Supervisors who really didn't care about their clients and were awful to work with. When complaints were made or reported ALP did little to nothing about it and would side with Supervisors often. Overall I'm happy I left ALP and continue to service children who are on the spectrum it's my passion in life.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Behavior technician 24 salaries reported	$21.90 per hour
Board certified behavior analyst 6 salaries reported	$82,333 per year
Entry level behavior technician 60 salaries reported	$20.43 per hour
Administrative clerk 37 salaries reported	$17.32 per hour
Registered behavior technician 8 salaries reported	$23.50 per hour

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