registered behavior technician

board certified behavior analyst

behavior technician

autism specialist

front desk agent

Family Support Center of Colorado

Working here as an RBT has been a very mixed experience. On one hand, the actual work with clients is meaningful, challenging and one of the most rewarding parts of my job. It’s a role where you’re constantly learning and adapting and for those who are passionate about working with kids and helping them grow, this aspect makes the job worth it. Unfortunately the overall structure and workplace environment make it difficult to fully enjoy the job. Training begins with two weeks of self paced videos, followed by a brief in person meeting to review key points for the RBT exam. After that, there’s no dedicated or specialized trainer. New hires learn by shadowing other RBTs on the floor, some of whom hold the unofficial title of “trainer” but they’re just regular RBTs working their own clients and caseloads. Training relies heavily on peer guidance while actively working and the experience varies depending on who you’re shadowing. Some are helpful and supportive but most are dismissive or unapproachable, making it difficult to ask questions or get reliable feedback. You’ll typically shadow with different people each day and consistency is lacking. After a period of shadowing, you complete a comp assessment and once passing that and the RBT exam, you start getting direct one on one sessions. Overall, the training process feels rushed, inconsistent and insufficient for the demands of the job. On top of that, the scheduling system is unusual compared to most other fields. It typically takes several months before you’re given a consistent schedule with the same set of clients. Until then, it’s common to be assigned to new clients with little notice, sometimes at the start of your shift. Each clinical supervisor manages their own caseload and treatment plans can vary significantly between supervisors, making it difficult to quickly adapt when you’re unfamiliar with a client or their programming especially if the client presents with more challenging behaviors. While flexibility is expected in this role, the lack of consistency and last minute changes can make day to day responsibilities unnecessarily stressful. You’re expected to commit to full session blocks, with limited flexibility. There’s no breaks or standard lunch break unless you work two consecutive sessions and even then, the ONE break is either unpaid or brief. Additionally, you can work full time hours for months and still not be considered a full time employee unless you formally apply for it. Benefits like PTO are only available after being officially approved for full time status, which is a  unnecessarily odd process. The work environment among staff is inconsistent. While some coworkers and floor supervisors are professional, kind and helpful, there’s also a noticeable lack of mutual respect from certain people. There isn’t a lot of open drama, which I appreciate but some staff members can be dismissive, unwelcoming or outright rude, especially toward newer employees. It creates a culture where people like myself tend to stick to themselves to avoid unnecessary conflict. Some of this I’ve communicated to my clinical supervisor, explaining it’s a major reason people consider leaving and while they constantly encourage self advocacy, it often feels like the responsibility to fix systemic issues is quietly pushed onto staff under the guise of speaking up. A major issue is how feedback is handled. In this line of work, constructive feedback is essential and most people come in expecting to learn and adjust. However, there’s a difference between offering helpful guidance and being condescending. Too often, clinical supervisors confuse giving feedback with issuing corrections in a way that feels more like redirecting a client than supporting a professional. Employees aren’t children or clients engaging in maladaptive behavior, we’re staff members here to help your clients and deserve to be treated like respected colleagues. Good leadership means offering assistance and support, not talking down to people. Overall, the job itself has a lot of value and the opportunity to work with these clients is something I’m grateful for. But the company’s structure, leadership style and certain aspects of the workplace culture seriously need improvement. I know I’m not alone in feeling this way. I think with some changes, this could be a much healthier and more positive place to work. Because for everything this job demands, mentally, physically and emotionally, it’s all for minimum wage.

When I first started at FSC I felt like I had a great group of BCBAs to engage with and collaborate with. Over the last two years the company has completely tanked. There is no support at all for BCBAs. The caseloads are MASSIVE sometimes up to 20 clients. The amount of turnover is ridiculous. We are constantly retraining new RBTs. There is no consideration for client needs and matching strong RBTs with difficult clients, instead they just focus on bringing in as much money as possible. There are no resources, stimuli (or people to make the stimuli), access to assessments, or executive support. Clinical managers are never on the floor or even at the clinic, so there is no one to go to for support with clients because they don't even know the clients and their behaviors. If you ask for support you don't get it. Then you get reprimanded for the exact things you asked for support on. EVERYONE is burnt out. The schedules are inconsistent and RBTs have to fight for hours. BCBA's try to advocate for RBTs and get shut down immediately. When you try to discharge a client because they've met all their goals or have mental health concerns that should be addressed by a mental health professional they refuse to do so. There is no collaboration between speech and OT because they can't maintain the services or hire enough speech and OT providers to work for the company. They tell parents their kids will get speech and OT and then they never do. This company has gone completely down hill. The families are wonderful and the RBTs can be really great but the executive management doesn't care about anyone...they just care about making as much money as possible. If you are able to sacrifice mental health, work life balance, and lack of support for a couple extra dollars then this is the place for you. Otherwise I would steer clear. This company does not truly care about their staff or clients. The only people that move up are the ones that don't speak up and do as they're told. Look elsewhere....

I was a BCBA at Family Support Center. I recognized the disorganization and the high turnover rate of RBTs almost immediately. Scheduling was extremely chaotic and unfair to the RBTs. All of the BCBA meetings were all about how we could maximize client hours and troubleshooting scheduling issues, rather than talking about clinical issues. There are NO resources for the BCBAs. We did not have proper assessment tools, we did not have books to refer to unless they were our own. The way the staff are treated is disheartening. They are treated as just bodies to fill in clients schedules even if the client didn’t need that many hours. There is no staff reinforcement in place. The only appreciation I received were from the RBTs and the families I worked with. Management gave me and the other BCBAs no support despite after asking for help several times. I had very difficult clients and needed clinical support, and I didn’t receive any. No one really knows who the upper management are, since they are never in the center. The staff morale was so low and it broke my heart hearing how burnt out all the RBTs were. BCBAs were pushed to take on average 10-15 hours a week direct, taking away time to supervise their staff. I was extremely exhausted from the turnover rate, having to train RBTs on a weekly basis, rather than actually modifying programs. I had no work life balance because I would get reprimanded if I was even 30 minutes short of my billable requirement. I LOVE the RBTs and the families I worked with. But the job was taking a major toll in my mental health and personal life. I have since started at a new company where my work/life balance is taken into consideration and I have several resources to learn from. My new job makes me remember why I became a BCBA in the first place. 
I really hope FSC recognizes these staff issues soon and treats their staff better and gives BCBAs the clinical support they need and deserve. That will be the only way the company will thrive. 

I worked for this company for about two and a half years. I watched the culture and morality go from being extremely great to terrible in that time period. However the company was able to teach me everything I know about ABA, I learned so much about the field and grew a wonderful attachment to my coworkers and my BCBA. The communication was terrible when I was there and there was constant drama with these cliques that had formed, and it brought so much negativity on the floor. Personal stressors were being brought into work with them, and it began creating a toxic environment. You could tell management had their favorites. My kids were amazing and changed my life completely, but as I grew with this company I got to a point of feeling like I no longer fit in. It felt like they hired just about anybody, which is great for people who are serious about this job and client care, it’s a great opportunity for others. But it also allowed people to come in just for the job. You can’t come for just the paycheck, being in this field you have to bring more energy into the session, clients feed off the energy and vibe you give. Upper management would say they are willing to listen to your thoughts and ideas that might help the company improve but at the end of the day, nothing was done to improve it. After being with a different company for some time, it has expanded my views on the way the company was ran. I hope things have actually been changing to help prevent lower turnover rates, but I don’t think I could ever go back, especially because after a certain amount of time of working there, they sort of put you on the back burner and their main focus is keeping people for the first year to year and a half. I can’t completely bash the company because they did have some perks and taught me so much, but there are definitely some room for improvement.

This company is ran by nepotism. If you are friends with the right people, you can get away with unethical practices and get opportunities that are not offered to anyone else. BCBAs were expected to have a caseload of 18-26 clients and were blamed for being unethical if it was expressed that you couldn't take on more kids. There is not a culture of growth and learning. The culture is to make money and to get as many bodies in as possible (staff and clients) and no one cares if quality services are provided or if staff is adequately training. RBTs are thrown into being direct with little training and are unfairly paid for the work they do then wonder why turnover is high. One of FSC's "core values" is compassion, which is comical. They do not believe in person-centered care, assent, or trauma-informed care. BCBAs had to seek their own trainings and mentorship outside of the company to get any support for implementing more compassionate methods. FSC is okay with using the most intrusive strategies for behavior reduction (including restrains and seclusion) for behaviors that could have been avoided by just treating the clients like they are humans with valid emotions. This company is SO far behind in current research and practices and they have no intention of learning how to do better ethically, clinically, or professionally. This company ruined my mental health through gaslighting, empty promises, and terrible management to the point I no longer wanted to work in the field of ABA. There are good ABA companies out there, but this is not one of them.

This place will mentally drain EVERYTHING out of you. I left on pretty good terms but unfortunately when I left quite a few staff members left as well due to feeling unsupported so I was looked down upon. You can give and give and give to this company and your center and work day in and day out for years to provide quality services, support staff members and create a positive environment and impact on the center and you will be met at the end with zero thank you’s and no goodbyes from anyone above you (this was evident when 5 BCBAs left with no thank you or goodbyes - most giving 5+ years of their life to this company). If you are friends with higher ups you can get away with just about ANYTHING from screaming at staff members, cursing out staff, forcing unethical restraints on clients and utilizing outdated ABA. The RBTs and clients are hands down the best thing about this company and even then RBTs are left with minimal training and zero support, so they are looked down upon. BCBAs have an unethical amount of clients on their caseloads (15-25 clients) which doesn’t allow them to properly support staff or update programs, and in turn forces extra stress and strain on the floor sups, candidates,  and senior level RBTs. This company only cares about monopolizing and making as much money as possible with as many people as possible. I cannot stress enough, stay away if at all possible. The relief and comfort I feel since leaving this place is a huge breath of fresh air. 

Family Support Center seems great at first, but you will learn quickly that it’s a toxic environment. Favoritism is a big problem here, and everyone talks bad about everyone. You can’t trust most of your coworkers because they are nice to everyone’s face but talk behind their back. Management is horrible and very cliquey. Opportunities are given based on if you are close friends with management or not. Some BCBA/BCaBA/Medicaid supervisors are great but most are adult mean girls. The kids are amazing and working with them made me a better person. I got just as much out of working with them as they got from working with me. There are some incredible people working as RBTs here and they deserve high praise for staying here and dealing with all the issues. Pay is awful. This work is not easy and RBTs deserve to be paid more. They pay less than most companies. I knew I was unhappy here but I didn’t realize how badly this job was impacting my wellbeing until after I was gone. I would never recommend for anyone to work here. This could be a great company if they stopped letting favoritism get in the way and if they stop letting BCBAs and other managers be bullies. Also burnout here is high and not enough is done about it. 

Now don’t get me wrong I love working with tiny humans  with autism. But if you are having a bad day staff does not care even if you are sick. I have seen multiple workers come in sick. They say they care about mental health but in reality they don’t. It takes a lot for someone to work with kids with autism but not having the right mental health resources sucks. You get five free sessions with a mental person and five more if a family member dies but that is not substantial for someone. 

The overall structure of the sessions sucks too,  especially if you are a trainee. 40 hours of BACB training to get done in a week with videos and tests along with going into center to train. Some of the trainers barely help or will tell you straightforward that the kid is hard to work with and they don’t like working with them. A lot of the kids structure is straight forward but some barely has anything in who the kids are and what they like. Also nothing in what to do when they elope or have fights. Even if you are a trainee they don’t prepare you properly for the RBT test they give you resources but they don’t help if you don’t understand something that is needed to know before you go into the tests even when you ask they give you examples that over lap with others. Overall it is hard to jump in even if it is payed training, but there is a lot of hidden knowledge that you don’t get. 

I was reading the comments. I worked here a few years ago. I also worked in the Hawaii location. I have an RBT and over 21 years of experience. I am retired from the Hawaii Department of Education Autism. I have worked with all ages and very severe cases.  My role in Hawaii was to support all schools within the district. This position carried a lot of responsibility. We had numerous of cases. We knew how to read IEP, BSP, take extensive data, etc…However, FSC management and a lot of their staff have the worst attitudes I have ever seen. Their behavior has no place in an already stressful environment. I did experience put downs, favoritism, etc. I saw abusive treatment to children. I am surprised this place is still allowed to stay open. FSC  management really needs to get their act together. FSC will continue to have high turn over because they don’t have a team approach. It’s sad because the employees FSC favor brings absolutely nothing to the table but negative gossip. I have worked with Autism as well as other behavioral, learning and emotional disabilities. ABA is a good program, but it’s not the only program. FSC had to be open to various programs. Special needs is not a one size fits all. FSC staff and management has no control over any of these kids they service. 

Sub-par care was given to kids when appropriate coverage was not available (which happened almost every single day). Trainees were given more responsibility and less supervision than I believe they should’ve. Changes were made to my schedule 15 minutes before a shift started. When I addressed the poor scheduling and the issues caused by it, I was basically told by my supervisor that “it happens and will continue to happen”. The hourly isn’t worth the amount of responsibility they give you. They don’t pay RBTs $22 an hour. That’s pretty much a bold-faced lie. You’ll need to be a BCBA candidate to receive that much. They cap RBTs at $19 an hour. Scheduling is an unorganized mess and doesn’t take well to be told so and they don’t communicate with upper management when they should. Morale is low and the kids suffer for all of these short-comings. I only worked there for a month and I saw three employees leave. One for the same position at a different company. You can guess why. I did learn quite a bit in a very short time and can appreciate a challenge and some of my coworkers were amazing but it was not a good fit for me, overall.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Registered behavior technician 18 salaries reported	$33,694 per year
Board certified behavior analyst 7 salaries reported	$84,643 per year
Behavior technician 7 salaries reported	$19.96 per hour
Autism specialist 6 salaries reported	$18.50 per hour
Front desk agent 1 salary reported	$19.00 per hour

Working at Family Support Center of Colorado: Company Overview and Reviews

Family Support Center of Colorado

Family Support Center of Colorado Ratings

Popular jobs at Family Support Center of Colorado

Salary Satisfaction

Job Seeker Tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected