behavior technician

behavioral specialist

board certified behavior analyst

aba therapist

clinical supervisor

Community Autism Services

Working at STAR of CA has been an incredibly disappointing and frustrating experience. I cannot emphasize enough how unsupportive the management has been throughout my tenure. Their lack of guidance, combined with unclear company policies, made it nearly impossible to navigate my responsibilities effectively.

First and foremost, the lack of support from management was astounding. Whenever I sought assistance or clarification on important matters, I was met with indifference or vague responses. It felt as though my concerns and questions fell on deaf ears, leaving me to fend for myself in an unfamiliar and challenging environment.

Furthermore, the company's policies were anything but clear. From the moment I started, I struggled to grasp the expectations and guidelines set forth by the company. The absence of a comprehensive employee handbook or readily available resources made it impossible to understand how to perform my duties adequately. As a result, I was constantly second-guessing myself and wasting valuable time and effort on trial and error.

To make matters worse, the job offered minimal hours and abysmal compensation. Despite promises of a reasonable workload and fair pay during the hiring process, the reality was far from it. I found myself constantly scrambling for additional work or taking on extra responsibilities just to make ends meet. The meager compensation provided for the amount of work required was demoralizing and insulting.

Perhaps the most distressing experience I had during my time at STAR was when I was attacked by a client. Despite the seriousness of the situation, management showed a complete lack of concern or willingness to address the issue. I felt abandoned and unprotected, with no support system in place to handle such incidents. This lack of care for the well-being and safety of their employees is simply unacceptable.

In summary, I cannot recommend working at STAR under any circumstances. The utter lack of support from management, combined with unclear policies, inadequate hours, and shockingly low pay, make it an extremely frustrating and disheartening place to work. Additionally, the complete absence of support when faced with an aggressive client further highlights the company's disregard for its employees' well-being. Save yourself the stress and disappointment and look for opportunities elsewhere.

My managers were outstanding in providing support. The more I communicated a need with them, the more support they gave me. 

Providing quality services is paramount, but expect to frequently have your hands too full (sometimes literally) to record accurate data in real-time. Everything you do in a session must be thoroughly recorded to track growth, and coded to be billable. Unfortunately, that usually meant recording the data after the session. Despite how critical it was to show quality data-keeping, the only time that I was paid to type notes was ten minutes at the end of each session, regardless of the session's duration. 

The coordinators are very good about making sure you have enough time to travel between sessions, but if you write slowly and the sessions are back-to-back, you'll have to finish your high-quality session notes on your own time, unpaid. The best way to avoid this would be to continuously save and tweak session templates for each client. The session notes of the people who have been doing the job the longest are templates. Be assured that those people have spent a lot of time fine-tuning their note-taking system off-the-clock.

The drive time policy was another pain point. 1) It was paid at minimum wage. 2) It was not applicable to the first and last commute of the day (unless the distance exceeded a specified threshold and was approved). 3) Drive time was only paid based on mapping directly from one site to the next. So if I had a 2-hour break between sessions over lunch, the most cost-effective thing to do was to to pack a snack, stay put, finish my notes, and accept that the time was unpaid. 

The days can get long and the work can bleed into your nights and weekends very easily. It takes more than being organized to be effective. You have to be willing to sacrifice. The best part of the job is when you can form emotional connections with kids and families. What makes the job the toughest is when (not if) you can't. 

I LOVED working for STAR. The problem is that being a behavior technician isn't a 9-5 type job. Most clients are around 3-5pm so the other ones will be kind of scattered through your day. A day could be 8am-10am client, then 12-3pm client, then 5-7pm client. That's 8 hours of work but 11 hours of your day. 30 hours is what they call full time so if you're making $16.50 an hour that's $165 less a week than if it was a 40 hour work week but 40 hours a week is at least 6 days of work each week. Clients are scattered around cities so you probably won't be able to go home between sessions without wasting gas and going out of your way. 

+ workplace culture
+ frequent feedback from supervisors
+ good medical plans available
+ really rewarding work
+ very organized structure of data collection and recording client notes
+ reimbursement for drive time and gas (except first/last drive of the day)
+ service coordinators work with you to make your best schedule (in my experience)

- ABA intervention is underpaid in general so it's not STAR's fault but definitely not enough money to meet living expenses in California
- they give bonuses but you have to sign commitment contracts
- limited potential for raises

I'd recommend it if you don't need to save up or if you live rent-free or with a partner who makes good money. Only way to make enough money to meet cost of living is to get promoted to supervisor which requires a masters and BCBA. I left after about a year and a half because of finances.

In all honesty I dont think I would recommend any one I know to work for Star after being here for some time. They promise you a full workload, and competitive pay along with support. But in all actuality that is far from true. Supervisors and case managers are only worried about themselves and making sure they have enough hours on their schedule so they can get paid. They can care less about you, asking for a well deserved raise is like pulling teeth. You ask for a certain wage and they meet you with a wage that is literally $1 more than your current pay. As if the insurance companies are only paying $18 an hour to assist the client. Most times there really is no support from supervisors, even when being placed on difficult and aggressive cases. Working here has been rewarding, dont get me wrong. Its nothing more enjoyable than seeing how much you can really help your client become the best person they can be. But on the flip side its very hard to enjoy your work when your not getting paid enough to pay your bills, buy groceries, and gas ofr your car since they often have you driving around the world for sub cases when the students themselves are absent from school. Summer hours with the company are hectic, be grateful if you have a client over the summer, that way your at least bringing in enough change to keep your lights on. 
This response may seem all over the place, but often times thats how I feel working here. 

I worked there for over 5 years. I had one supervisor who seemed to truly care in my first year. Since then, I have not had a manager or supervisor who was inspiring or seemed to actually care about our clients. Supervisors do the bare minimum and everything falls on the BT's who are in the homes. This was true before covid. Now with covid, the supervisors do not go out in person. I haven't seen anyone from the company in person in over a year. So even more is put on BT's because supervisors don't even interact with the families like they're supposed to. 

This place promises to support you in your path towards becoming a BCBA but its a complete joke. After 5 years of full time employment and receiving tons of emails that they reimburse for tuition, I finally decided to take that route. Once I got accepted and started classes, my CM was completely unhelpful and rejected my request for the tuition reimbursement because I had dropped down to part-time for a few months. Mind you I had been requesting more hours for over 6 months plus had already put in over 5 years of full-time work and loyalty to the company and my clients. 

There was no sense of a work community. If you enjoy working independently with little to no contact with any co-workers this is the place. If you enjoy working with children and have all the patience for rough days, this is the place. I've worked with better paying ABA companies but it wasn't the worst. As a BT there is a lot of driving involved and the rate per mile doesn't really make up for the time and gas. It is a great transitioning place if you are planning to continue school or credentials but I did not feel they promoted from within often. There is obvious favoritism between clinicians, supervisor and BT. Almost feels like a high school environment all over again but includes an inconsistent paycheck for dealing with it all. Its great to get some experience in the psych/behavioral field but definitely not a company to grow with, they wont support. I spent over 6 months requesting to get mentored and set up for the RBT test and it kept getting pushed off. Even though I had 3 years of experience in ABA prior to joining STAR of Ca. Like I stated before, favoritism is obvious and lack of genuine care for employees. . 

I absolutely love working for this company, I started in august 2022 and I've received ongoing support and mentoring from my supervisor. ABA is hard work and can be a learning curve. For me its was learning how to work with small children but now I have a lot of confidence from supervisions and feedback.  Its rewarding to see how you can make a difference for the kids and their family. You will learn a lot and have plenty of support, so give your best and communicate. I have a part time position but I'm being paid more than previous companies. They offer raises for your hard work, a generous amount sick time and paid online trainings that are helpful. I feel I've made progress with my clients and received recognition for it from my supervisor and HR. The hard work you put in really pays off and this cannot be said about other companies I've worked for. I truly wish I discovered this company sooner and I encourage you to apply.

NE ABA is the third ABA company I have worked at, and it is by far the best! The person in charge of scheduling is very responsive and seemingly always available. Supervisors send out a weekly email to discuss what each BT did well that week during observation or check-ins, making you really feel appreciated in the position. Further, supervisors listen to feedback about programming and behavior reduction, and will workshop things with you if they are not working or benefiting the client. The clients are very fun, but scheduling will make sure it is a good fit and move you if the case is not right for you. Further, drive time AND mileage are compensated, and if you show up to a house and nobody is there you will be compensated for the whole session (following HR review). You also fill out an easy questionnaire to share your availability, which will quickly be filled. Any schedule changes are dealt with promptly and without any guilt trips. Overall a great company! Only downside is that it is almost entirely afternoon/evening hours, though for the pay it is certainly worth it. Plus the after-school hours make it easy to fit another job in with it!

My experience here was terrible. The first couple years of working here were solid and the staff was supportive, but once they became corporate that’s when everything went downhill. The managers that were once supportive became cold towards others and didn’t care for the wellbeing of the BTs/BIs or the supervisors. My manager in particular was extremely unprofessional and would bring her personal problems into the workplace and would cancel our meetings last minute due to her personal problems. 
Another issue that was noticeable was the management would play favorites with the BIs/BTs and supervisors, such as giving them a higher caseload/hours and hanging out with them outside of work hours. If a BI/BT or supervisor was not a favorite then they would give them unnecessary feedback and limit their caseload. If you spoke out against the unfairness, then your job would be on the line.
Overall, I would avoid working at this office due to the extremely toxic work environment. 

The ability to work various hours was sometimes cool, but having to work 8am-8pm just to get your full hours each week gets exhausting quickly, especially if you're expected to work Saturdays too. Communication with BCBAs was not clear and there were a few BCBAs who had a superior attitude toward the RBTs. There were times I was corrected while doing a procedure correctly, only to have the BCBA reread the program and repeat back to me what I had just done with no recognition that I had done it correctly. I was informed during a session once that it would be the last session for me with that client, not by the BCBA herself but by the mother, who was told during that same session. The mother was confused and seemed hurt, and then the client was emotionally upset learning that his RBT wouldn't be with him anymore, without any amount of time to process that and end the therapeutic relationship appropriately.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Behavior technician 409 salaries reported	$24.25 per hour
Behavioral specialist 823 salaries reported	$24.09 per hour
Board certified behavior analyst 326 salaries reported	$90,276 per year
Aba therapist 124 salaries reported	$25.12 per hour
Clinical supervisor 119 salaries reported	$30.27 per hour

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