behavior technician

registered behavior technician

board certified behavior analyst

autism support professional

aba therapist

KGH Autism Services

I used to love my job and pride myself on being able to keep a work life balance even in emotionally and physically taxing jobs. I find that nearly impossible with this job. Most staff who have worked here for 4-6 months are burnt out to the point of needing to leave the field all together. RBT's pull a lot of weight that they are not financially compensated for. Most of us are making 19-21 an hour which is absurd for how hard we work and for how high rent has become. Raises are 3% annually even with an annual comp rating well over 100. Your sick time is gone immediately because we don't earn enough of it and are consistently around kids who mouth everything, but are also sick. Meaning the staff are frequently sick, but are forced to work through it due to lack of sick time. If you complain, HR sends you a from to fill out or asks you to get FMLA which is such a Hassel. Medical accomodations....so many hoops to jump through with HR that it isn't even worth trying to get.  

A HUGE thing. KGH doesn't allow your supervisors to act as references on your resume. I have worked here for so long, that all the relevant, recent, and professional relationships I have are for this company. Come to find out upon trying to find a new job....none of my supervisors are allowed to be on my resume. Meaning I have nobody on my reference list and cannot be hired elsewhere because of that. I'll end by saying if you look through the reviews of KGH, staff have consistently complained about the same. things. for years, but there is extremely minimal or no change. 


The culture that management creates at KGH Autism Services is toxic at best. The administrators do not care about the kids and only care about their bottom line; RBTs are forced to work long sessions that tire not only themselves but the clients. On multiple occasions staff have voiced their concerns that longer sessions are not productive and lead to burnout but each time management would state that they would not change their model “in order to benefit clients.” This is simply not true as there are far better ABA organizations in the area that provide shorter sessions with the same quality of therapy. KGH refuses to change their model because at the end of the day they only care about how they can turn in profit from their kids. Moreover, administrators and BCBAs openly mock and negatively speak about their clientele not only in private but in front of their clients. In addition, BCBAs create programs that are designed to mask and hide autism characteristics, not only is this an outdated view of autism treatment but has been thoroughly demonstrated to traumatize clients. Finally, there are multiple RBTs who have a sick power trip and spend their days yelling at children and controlling their kids every move to make themselves feel bigger and better about themselves. These actions are deplorable and when brought to the attention of BCBAs and management they are simply dismissed and allowed to carry on. If I was a prospective parent, employee I would earnestly explore other options. 

When I started at KGH, I was excited and committed to staying long-term. Unfortunately, my experience is defined by recurring illness, poor scheduling, and punitive policies, none of which corporate has meaningfully addressed despite years of feedback.
There’s minimal effort to mitigate illness: cleaning is entirely left to RBTs during admin time, but after hours of back-to-back sessions (often while sick), most are too exhausted to manage it. Even if they had the energy or were adequately compensated, the systems in place are ineffective, with administrative staff admitting they've given up after past failures.
Policies also incentivize working while ill. For example, calling out before or after a holiday results in losing holiday pay—untenable when you're already underpaid. PTO is quickly drained by recurring illnesses, and when it’s gone, corrective action follows. None of the benefits or accommodations are sufficient given the clinic's poor conditions.
High turnover is rampant, with few staff staying beyond 6 months. This disrupts client progress and treatment, which is heartbreaking to witness. KGH could save money on training and improve outcomes by investing in their staff and acting on feedback, but they refuse to do so. The Madison clinic is suffers enormously under this leadership.


What is the best part of working at the company?
Working directly with the children and seeing their advancements in real time is so rewarding. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The training is not up to par and is extremely difficult for anyone not used to, or does not learn well from, a reading and lecture environment. However, the director is very receptive to ideas for improvement.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The company is diverse in culture and very accepting in differences. Keep in mind, you would be working directly with children between the ages of 2 and 18, some of which have the tendency to run off on you, or may have violent tendencies, being able to physically keep up with them may be a challenge. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
After training, you are given a tablet on which you record your data. You are assigned to a few children, that you will have one at a time for 1-2 hours. During this time you will run trials/programs that are provided to you in the client's session structure and record the data on the tablet. You will be responsible for completing SOAP notes by the end of your session with the client.

KGH is a highly toxic company. The only ability to grow is to get your RBT, from there there is no growth unless you go for your BCBA. No enrichment programs or opportunities for bonuses, raises are given our very little. 

Work life balance does not exist. You are expected to have completely open availability from 830-630 only for them to do whatever they want with your schedule to get the 40 hours, there is no flexibility in your schedule and if you want any flexibility, management and the admin team will tell you to decrease your hours- because god forbid they accommodate their employees. Very few people are happy, and every time we express our thoughts the admin team acts like they care and dont follow through on anything.

The admin team is changing the clinic into a place that is HIGHLY not individualized and except all employees to play along with babysitting clients, instead of giving them individualized therapy.

The clients are the best part of this job, and everything is bad.  This is a toxic work envirnoment, as as the executive team would say, "maybe this isnt the best fit"... find somewhere else to work, because the only thing this company cares about is money and making more of it.

What is the best part of working at the company?
I'm just grateful for colleagues who try to keep thing at work positive no matter how exhausted and stressed we all are. Though it's really saddening that most of them cousin't bear all that longer, new hires who replace them were not so terrible either. But something needs to change here. Management and leadership should make improvements.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
With unreasonably tedious tasks, unfair and brutal treatment from management, employees were left feeling awfully dehumanized! Most of the time, the staff were misinformed with what's going on, with the constant changes management makes, it's hard keeping up with everything! We get blamed for not communicating when that's what we do all the time! It's them who don't give proper directions or respond at all!! There's always an issue and we get yelled at every time! Most staff won't even last a few months and the turnover here is really something!! Don't even get me started with how much and how stressful our workload is because we've been complaining about since since the beginning! We're perpetually understaffed and people will keep leaving if nothing changes!

Starting with the good: KGH was a place where you felt like you were making a difference in the lives of the clients, and your supervisors (BCBA) were usually very helpful and hands on. You also get PTO on your birthday.
The bad: it seems like KGH needs to figure out how to keep their employees happy. Every position has a high turnover rate from the receptionist to the RBTs because the work is very difficult and often draining, and the employees feel under compensated for doing such work. Benefits aren't the best- can't contribute to retirement savings until a year of working there, and health insurance is expensive. Work environment can be toxic with many of your co-workers complaining about how much they dislike their jobs and just overall unhappy vibes within the entire RBT staff. BCBAs also seemed to be overworked too, with the high case load they had from other BCBAs quitting. I would recommend looking elsewhere if you're looking to get into the field- at least until KGH figures out how to make their employees feel valued and appreciated. 

The turnover rate here is crazy high, and it makes sense. Management doesn’t try to take care of their employees, so bt’s often leave before or right after they hit the 1 year mark. They take advantage of the care we have for the kids and will put you with kids who’s programming you’re unfamiliar with, or don’t know with little to no support. The kids are stuck with the same programming for months at a time with little change, and easily grow bored. Pregnant workers are not taken care of and are forced to either quit or work longer hours for an extra break. Also be expected to be written if you take unpaid time off if you don’t have pto or sick time, even in cases of an emergency. Management does little to prepare families or clients for changes in staff even when given months notice so kids are stuck on hold since there isn’t enough staff for coverage sessions. Schedules are changed at the drop of a hat and half the time you’re not given notice when you’ve been put on coverage. Unless you have a great bcba you shouldn’t expect a lot of support either.

The beat part about this place is the kids and coworkers. They are fantastic however everything else sucks. First off, they give you random 15 minute and 30 minute coverage sessions and you will see up to 8-10 DIFFERENT clients per day. These will be clients that are not even on your caseload. Some of these clients have different serious medical issues and they DO NOT warn you about them when you are randomly put on coverage. They do not care about the kids only the money. The kids programming will stay the same for over 5 months after they master it. Everyone who works here is stressed out and can barley function. Management doesn’t care and never listens to their employees. The burn out is terrible. They have to put kids on hold because of the amount of people quitting because they were taken advantage of. If you really love working with kids find a place that really cares for them because they only see them as a dollar sign here. Some clients will see up to 9-10 therapist in one day in a 6 hour session. They have been doing these kids an injustice and its so sad to see them spiral downward.

This job is my first time working in ABA and the clients and peers I work with are great. I feel that starting a job in the midst of a pandemic and with increased demands and stress may be making the job feel different than it would in more "normal" circumstances. However, it may be related to increased need for staff flexibly in scheduling and shift coverage that can make it hard to have work-life balance or to feel properly prepared for sessions so they are productive for clients. With all this being said, KGH is one of the few companies in the area & in the current industry that offers RBT's full-time status at 30 hours and pay that is pretty competitive.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Behavior technician 3 salaries reported	$20.08 per hour
Registered behavior technician 17 salaries reported	$19.97 per hour
Board certified behavior analyst 1 salary reported	$80,000 per year
Autism support professional 10 salaries reported	$20.03 per hour
Aba therapist 7 salaries reported	$20.02 per hour

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