Things have changed drastically since a client died in April 2016. The teachers are decent here. There are some highly incompetent teaching assistants and mental health specialists. Organization is highly erratic; you might not know until the last minute whether or not you have any meeting to attend. There is little to no job security whatsoever. Students can write allegations against you in a wanton manner, and regardless of how far fetched it may seem, it will still be investigated and this could affect your livelihood. The students are put first which is good for them, however, the staff are put on the back burner and are readily expendable which easily explains the rapid turnover rate (there is a reason why they are constantly hiring and never expanding.) Job security is even more up in air due to a death of a student in April and no new students have been admitted. Some staff are highly unprofessional, but they get away with it due to who they know (nepotism is rampant here.) Staff are asked to engage in illegal activities such as administering medicine to students (medical background is required for this.) There is good staff support among peers generally (fellow teaching assistants and mental health specialists) however, you will get poor support at best from directors and administrators. On the flip side, due to Allendale Association being grossly understaffed, there is essentially unlimited overtime. There are teaching assistants and mental health specialists working 80+ hours a week, which results in a much higher pay check in contrast to a similar position in a public school. The students are for the most part highly violent individuals as they have been kicked out of their foster homes and/or public schools as well as less structured alternative schools prior to enrolling at Allendale. Students having been hospitalized at a mental health institution and/or juvenile detention center is par for the course. There are no identifiable security guards as that is an addictional job duty expected of teaching assistants and mental health specialists. This results in restrains being a daily activity, and one will eventually be involved with them, which DCFS watches with a microscope; if you get injured, they will put you on monotonous desk duty with no chance for overtime. Some staff have become permanently disabled from this job, and some have been severely injured i.e. broken arms, legs, elbows, necks, and also stabbings. One staff member required facial reconstructive surgery, and guess whose pocket that came out of........not the school......the staff member. As a result, many staff are currently under active DCFS investigations, and if there is a finding of neglect, this can be very expensive to fight. If one is looking to actually teach, this is probably the wrong environment. Control obviously is the first consideration, and education second, and this is greatly exacerbated at this institution. The starting hourly wage is rather low i.e. $11.25/hr, and many staff work insane amounts of overtime to make ends meet. If one is wanting to become a special education teacher, it is very difficult for one to find another school district with a starting salary as high as here. However, one must keep in mind that there is a reason that the salary is very high here. The left hand does not know what the right hand is doing here frequently. Many of the unit coordinators are highly questionable in their ethics and professionalism; some are good, but others leave one scratching their heads as to how they ever got a job working with students in the first place. The supervisors, however, are quite possibly the highest caliber employees that they have. Things could greatly be improved if there was a union set in place for both the teachers as well as the support staff. read more
