educator

program manager

childcare provider

school program staff

tutor

Right at School

Overall I enjoyed my experience working for Right at School before and after school programs. I started as an educator and pretty quickly worked my way to being promoted as a program manager. It's a revolving door of staff, some individuals have been with them for years, but most people tend to come in and not stay for too long and I can see why.

Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed working with the kids ...even though many of them had behavioral issues, and had frustrated me many times, working with the kids is still very much the highlight of this job and the very reason I kept coming in to work as long as I did.

I'm not much of a morning person so the before school hours weren't the most ideal for me personally but I made it work for the time I was there. The split shift can be rough. You come in very early in the morning to work for a few hours at a school and then you have about a 5 hour break and come back in the afternoon to work another few hours which means you'll have plenty of time to run errands, go home and nap, eat, clean or whatever you need to do in that between break but in my experience it was difficult to find the motivation to want to keep coming back for that afternoon shift after such a long break.

Pay isn't horrible, especially if you end up being a program manager but I often felt we were underpaid for the amount of children we were dealing with daily. It still beat working in a fast food franchise or a grocery store though. 

I'd say the worst part of working with Right at School lies with upper management and their extremely high expectations. My colleagues were mostly great, and they were generally helpful but there were others who had been with company longer who were difficult to deal with. Management helped us with certain things but other stuff we were left to figure out on our own. They don't offer many benefits as they consider everyone part time employees. There is sick time but they don't do PTO. Often times in the weekly management meetings I attended, employees were getting scolded for calling out sick when they didn't have sick time and were told that they are expected to still come into work if they didn't have enough hours in sick time to cover a shift. I understand it's not ideal to have employees calling out frequently and how they have to scramble to find coverage for people last minute when people call out but if someone is really ill do you actually want them around children? They also would make it to where you need to clock out immediately following your shift which means often times you'd be doing some tidying up of your workspace or writing incident reports and not getting paid for it like you should be.

I also have to agree with other reviews I've seen on here regarding their slogan A place to be a kid.  That sounds like they ripped off the slogan of a certain kid entertainment venue/pizzeria for one thing and the slogan is only somewhat true for Right at School because they try to force a curriculum on the students in the program when many of these kids are basically in school from 6:30am to 6pm if they attend both the before and after school programs! That's a lot of pressure to put on young children to do projects in school nearly the whole day.

I really felt for the kids because they just wanted to have fun while in the program like play games, draw, hang out with their friends, enjoy some sports and free time when we'd be in the gym and on the playground. It's kindergarten through sixth grade we're dealing with too so it's difficult to get every student to pay attention long enough to work on arts and crafts projects together.
I miss my group of kiddos a ton, but I felt it was time to move on to new adventures as the job starts to become less enjoyable overtime with management enforcing so many rules.

They also have camps you can volunteer to work during breaks like the spring and summer breaks which is nice if you really want that as an option to keep getting work hours throughout the year but I did not like working the camps as you are generally working at schools that are different than your normal school, with a whole different group of kids, several other educators you likely have never met before or have met once or twice briefly and everyone seems to be watching what you're doing constantly during the camps and silently judging you. 

A Typical Work Day:
A typical day at work includes a Team Huddle and Classroom Set Up approximately from 1:30PM - 1:55PM. Students arrive at 2:00PM to where they are provided 15 minutes to check in for the day with their Educators. At approximately 2:15PM, the grade groups arrive inside their classes where a headcount is conducted and a “town hall” is held to go over expectations, program announcements, play a transition icebreaker game and the like. This process is expected to be completed within another 15 minutes. Between 2:30 and 4:45 - the day is split into three main sections: Homework support (approximately 35 minutes), Play Right Fitness (approximately 35 minutes) and Daily Double (Enrichment - approximately 35 minutes) with a 10-15 minute Snack Break and a 15-20 minute Bathroom Break. At approximately 4:45PM, remaining students pack up their bags and transition into the main hall for End of Day regrouping. Staff have a brief end of day check in and the work day is finished. 

Management/Workplace Culture:
The RAS site is demonstrably lacking in resources. There exists one set of bathrooms on the second floor - where a majority of the program classrooms are which are often difficult to monitor because they are on opposite sides of the floor. The hallways are narrow which makes maneuvering through them rather difficult, the classrooms themselves are sparse of educational materials despite the company’s heavy emphasis on curriculum, there is no separate place to conduct Play Right Fitness which often elevates behavioral mishaps due to intermingling of  grade groups/open access to the set of classrooms in the main building, management is often not on the same page about how to manage classrooms - with the most critical being the least directly supportive. There is a lack of true accountability and discipline for students with behavioral conduct concerns - since the program has a lackadaisical approach. Often times, discussions with students do not garner results particularly for the younger grades who have no real sense of consequence and the behavioral management system is inadequate. Parents can be difficult to get on the same page with as well, since most would not like to see their children in a less than favorable light which can make addressing challenging behaviors rather cumbersome and overall unpleasant. Most days, breaks cannot actually be taken during the workday due to the understaffing. Upper management is extremely rigid when it comes to compensation, additional planning hours etc. Sick hour accrual is fairly slow (0.033332 per pay period). The staff are supportive of one another to a degree, however the program lacks a sense of communal practices since there is “opening reception” with the whole program at the start of the day. The management often has requests that border on unreasonable given the resources and similarly are quick to call attention to shortcomings of the team and not as quick in the same scale to call attention to successes. 

Hardest + Most Enjoyable Part of the Job:
Simple answer - the kids are the hardest part of the job which also makes them the most enjoyable part of the job. It can be deeply rewarding when a student is focused, engaged and an active participant. In the same vein, when a student is disruptive, unengaged and a passive participant, it can be deeply frustrating. Juggling between what will keep the kids engaged with what is contractually required in regard to the provided curriculum is often a balancing act. Another difficult part of the job is satisfying the inconsistencies in management prioritization which seemingly change at a whim. I experience them to have a Top-Down version of leadership rather than a Bottom-Up version of leadership

What I Believe I Learned:
Every day is a new day to try again. The little moments become big moments. 

Right at School used to be a very enjoyable job for me. I loved working with the kids and having fun with them while also helping them out with homework and developing their skills.

I’ve worked at Right at school for about two years. The company has changed so many times because of the involvement of the district as well as expectations from the company.

All I’m going to say is that this company does not value their employees. Hours are cut or not guaranteed because of “overstaffing” and apparently the company is “over-budget”. This company HAS the money to franchise and open in many schools, so I have no clue how they can be over-budget. Being in this company for so long, I have seen my peers and coworkers leave, and new names practically filling the schedule every week. The pay is more than good for a part time job, so why do people leave? It’s because the Area/Regional managers do not support the employees like they think they do. They don’t empathize that these students will speak different languages, have disabilities, and have behavioral problems. I don’t think that sites are overstaffed because we NEED multiple people at sites to handle these students. It is mentally and emotionally exhausting, especially when sites are understaffed and you don’t have the support of actual people around you when you have your own classroom.

Hiring is also questionable because they hire people with barely any experience working with kids prior with barely any training besides their weekly 5-10 minute training videos that they assign every week (which people can just skim through anyways). I applied for a Program Manager position, but did not get it because I “needed more time”, while they hire people who have never been at the company with again, NO prior experience working with kids. This really upset me, but I am honestly glad I never got the position after seeing all the stress that Program Managers dealt with.

The curriculum they expect you to do on a daily basis is also not engaging enough for a large group of students of varying ages and grades. But they still expect you to do it everyday because that’s the standard.

In my opinion, It is very clear that the Area Manager chooses a select few to focus on and everyone else is left to fend for their selves. There have been instances where I have been forgotten for pay raises and bonuses just because they forgot about me and I had to remind them. There is a reason why management has such a low review score across all sites everywhere.

I applaud the Program Managers that are at their site everyday, and are there to witness the chaos that can ensue at an after school program. They are the people that I saw everyday, who I talked to and built relations with. I left this company disappointed and not appreciated by bad upper management and hope that they or someone else can do better. 

If you want a job for a month or so, then go for it. Otherwise, look elsewhere.

Working for Right At School has been one of the most disappointing and mentally exhausting experiences I’ve ever had in my professional life. What this company portrays during the hiring process is completely different from the reality you face once you start working.
There is a severe lack of structure, support, and accountability within management. Area Managers constantly say one thing and do another — they promise transparency and open communication, but when issues actually arise, they either avoid responsibility or shift blame onto the staff. The leadership team talks a lot about “supporting employees,” but in practice, you’re left to handle every difficult situation alone, and when things go wrong, they distance themselves immediately.
The Area Managers are inconsistent and often full of empty words. They will smile in meetings and act like they care, but the moment you actually need help, you realize how little they truly value their staff. There’s no sense of loyalty — it’s all about what’s most convenient for them or for the parents, even if it means throwing dedicated employees under the bus.
When you’re dealing with rude or disrespectful parents, instead of being protected, you’re often made to feel like you did something wrong for simply standing up for yourself or following procedure. There’s little to no enforcement of their own policies regarding parent behavior toward staff. The company constantly preaches “professionalism” and “inclusivity,” yet they fail to uphold either when it matters most.
Communication is abysmal. One day you’re told one thing, and the next day you’re told the complete opposite. Managers will move you around without warning, change your hours without consideration, and expect you to just accept it with a smile. There’s no stability — you never know where you’ll be working next week or what new “temporary change” they’ll come up with.
I worked hard, I showed up, I cared about the kids, and I took pride in creating a safe and inclusive environment. But none of that mattered in the end. The moment a situation required leadership to step up and support me, they didn’t. Instead, I was left feeling dismissed, unheard, and completely drained.
The turnover rate is incredibly high for a reason. Good people don’t last long here because they realize quickly that this company values convenience over character. The programs survive because of the dedication of the staff — not because of the leadership behind it.
If you’re considering applying here, be warned: this job looks good on paper, but the reality is chaotic, disorganized, and distasteful. Unless you enjoy being overworked, underappreciated, and constantly misled, look elsewhere.

While I believe this is a position that does benefit you in getting some experience working in childcare, it definitely is not one you should expect to move up in pay or position. What I learned while training for the job felt like something totally different or dismissed when I got to the actual location I was assigned to. The PMs often did not know who would be there or implemented any plans for us as Educators to work off on. The turnover rate is HIGH because the hours are not worth it (even as part-time, only 2.5 hours a day is not enough in this economy) and more are rarely given to you. Even if you express consistent availability to work multiple shifts, they would rather hire a completely new person who would quit in less than a month than give you the position or more hours. 

A lot is expected of you as an Educator, which is a given. However, that same level of expectations and actual performance I felt especially at the location I worked was not the same despite being told we are a team and PMs work just the same as us. If we are short-staffed, which is often, expect to have multiple groups rather than the PMs come to help. They also expect you to know every single child immediately when they ask despite not knowing themselves. This has happened many times before where one of them will ask where a child is while said child is right in their face. PMs are supposed to be in charge of planning out different activities and implementing group rotations if need be so all staff is familiar with the kids, especially for a bigger program. This rarely happened and we, as educators, were expected to come up with projects ourselves that would only end up turned down or dismissed because the PMs stated they had their own projects for us. Projects they never implemented. This is location-dependent from what I’ve seen and heard, but that is also an issue. It’s inconsistent across the board and you can only hope you are going to a location that actually functions the way Right at School training proposes itself as functioning. Unfortunately for me, it was not the case. 

It’s why I’m reiterating that although working with the children themselves is very fulfilling in that you are bettering your skills in being an active listener as well as teaching through play, the pay and low amount of hours aren’t worth it. A good part-time job if you need extra money, but definitely not one you should consider as a main job.

My experience working as a Summer Camp Counselor with RAS at John Sinnott Elementary was unfortunately disappointing and did not meet my expectations of a supportive or professional work setting.

The overall environment often felt disorganized and lacking in preparation. There were several days when materials for scheduled activities were not ready, and educators were expected to improvise with little support. On multiple occasions, we were told things like, “Oops, we forgot to set the stations,” which made it challenging to deliver consistent and engaging programming for the children.

Communication among the management team was inconsistent. At times, I received conflicting instructions about scheduling, with one manager requesting I arrive early while another asked me to leave early the same day. This lack of coordination made it difficult to maintain a steady routine.

I also observed uneven treatment among staff. Some team members appeared to receive preferred tasks and more stable schedules, while others were frequently reassigned with minimal explanation or support.

One particularly uncomfortable moment occurred when I was publicly confronted about leaving early—despite having received prior permission from another manager. Situations like these could have been handled privately and with more professionalism.

Another concern was how some children's needs were addressed. For example, when a child became completely soaked during a water activity and needed to call home, the request was denied with little empathy. These moments raised questions for me about priorities and the overall responsiveness of the leadership.

That said, there were individuals on the team who were communicative and professional, and I appreciated those interactions.

Overall, I did not feel supported or valued in this role. While I enjoyed working with the children and always came prepared to contribute positively, the inconsistent communication and lack of structured leadership ultimately made this a difficult environment to thrive in.

This company is really bad at hiring. As a Program Manager, your Senior Area Managers and Area Managers expect so much of you when your shift is short.

They always push for only working your "scheduled hours". Those that succeed and get advancement in their positions are Program Managers who have low enrollment and have time to do things, Program Managers who work off the clock, or Program Managers who are the Senior Area Managers/ Area Managers' favorites.

I really wanted to stay with this company and help it, but they do not listen to their field employees.

The overall staffing is really lacking.

I'll give a couple of situations of how they operate.

One time person applied for a Program Manager position, but was given an Educator position because the Program Manager position got filled. A new program opened, but since we were short-staffed, it was easier to fill a Program Manager position versus an Educator position. They hired a new Program Manager instead of making that Educator a Program Manager.

There are many things that are wrong with the way this company operates ever since its vast expansion.

I've been working with this company for 4 years now.

One time I brought up my Sick Time, and they said it was incorrect! I had to keep going back and forth with HR only for them to admit I was correct.

They also have me alone with 30+ students way too many times.

Licensing standards call for a 1:14 ratio. They are using the "California heritage school" as a loophole for this.

Making it easier for the company to save money on hiring educators.

Honestly. I put so much blood, sweat, and tears into this company. They even had me working when students at my school tested positive for COVID during the pandemic!!!!!! NOTE there were COVID protocols at this time.

The thing that kept me with this company was the opportunity to inspire students!

I hope this company starts listening to its Program Managers, and the Area/Senior managers stop talking to Program Managers like little kids.




This is a very okay company to work for. You will be overworked and denied days off due to staff shortage and people not wanting to work in childcare. They are understaffed severely and have low retention rate for new applicants. The actual day to day depends on the school location you work for and the type or children/type of help you will get, which is rarely received. 
If you are a strong multiple year experienced childcare worker this situation and circumstance will not surprise you however if you are newer to childcare and if you like a routine and consistency and support this is not the job for you. To reiterate your experience is solely based off what school you get sent to and if that school is 
1) fully staffed 2) has full one on one and special needs support 3) has staff that shows up and knows what they are supposed to/actively participate 
If this is the case and all of the above is completed then your experience at this job will be the average childcare experience. If 1-3 are not completed (as they are usually not) then your experience will be entirely different and you will feel the neglect, in which it will affect your work/quality of care you are able to provide to the program you will work in. Current top management is not responsive and not helpful but direct management is incredible and does everything they can to help out. My suggestion to this company is cycle through and get rid of your stagnant management that is there just for the paycheck and maybe hire more support for lower district management that are working overtime to help out in the gaps left behind by your higher up management. This would help your new hire retention rate by a lot and create a dynamic flow in your company. As long as you keep useless top management no one else can effectively and efficiently do their jobs, two characteristics you flaunt and demand in this company. 

Scheduling is really sporadic. Some weeks you could work 3 hours, other weeks you could work 5 days a week and have five hours a day, spread out from 7am to 6pm. Then they withhold whether or not you have hours for the summer until a week before the program ends. Because of this, and such poor pay, they're constantly short staffed because people can't take the hours.

 Additionally, the AM position tends to be a revolving door, so the PMs are left to kind of fend for themselves since no one above them really has a solid grasp on things. 

Constantly out of ratio, and if children need supports, we are unable to provide (like if they elope and need a 1:1 during the school day) there is a very lengthy process that takes place before the inclusion team will do anything about it. At our program, one student tormented/harassing the other kids to the point where parents began withdrawing their children and staff threatened leaving before, they removed the child.  

The curriculum is drawn out and after being in school, very few of the students are eager to participate. additionally, many of the activities require supplies that are often not approved by management due to it being "overbudget" despite the fact that we can only purchase the items from a specific list and it's literally what the curriculum is telling you that you need... 

Upper management is very patronizing. They just tell you to refer to the employee handbook for any problem that you may have. There are also a lot of false promises made by the upper management, and they manipulate their policies and job descriptions to best suit their fiscal agendas. 

I have been working with kids for over twenty years and never have I been part of a more disorganized or unprofessional company, that cared so little about the children. They advertise themselves as some kind of new aged after school program, with all these new and innovative techniques, but it's not true. First of all, they have no idea what they are doing. They try to run the same curriculum and activities for kids no matter their grade. They have Kindergartners and sixth graders doing the same thing at the same time. Half the kids don't understand and are frustrated, while the other half are angry they're doing baby stuff. They also try to have you do all these projects that have so many steps and are so complicated that no one in any of the programs could figure them out, much less get the kids to participate in them. As far as management, they promise you twenty hours a week, but don't come close to that, because if you don't have enough kids, or kids leave early, so do you. I almost never had twenty hours in a week, despite being promised that when I was hired. They also give you strict guidelines to follow, regarding dress code, interactions with parents, what you can and can't say to a child, break any of those and you get written up, phone calls from HR, seriously the whole thing was a nightmare. I was with Right At School for one school year and we had SIX different program directors at my school, they kept getting frustrated with constant supervision and complaints from upper management and every single one of them quit, I think that just about says everything about this company, and for the record, by the end of the school year, most parents had pulled their kids out and the ones that were still there, hated coming to Right At School.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Educator 2114 salaries reported	$18.02 per hour
Program manager 1420 salaries reported	$22.83 per hour
Childcare provider 1346 salaries reported	$18.78 per hour
School program staff 570 salaries reported	$20.23 per hour
Tutor 202 salaries reported	$17.06 per hour

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