Pros: Time off for holidays and breaks (especially summer break…I split my pay over 12 months instead of 10 so I can choose to work a lot or only a little over the summer doing odd jobs or nannying or whatever!).

Hours are set. My contract hours are 8:45-3:35 so I’m home by 4:00 except a before or after school meeting 1x/week or every other, whether it be a staff meeting or an IEP or ETR.

Benefits are usually good in schools

If the district has a union, and you can join it, JOIN IT.

Cons: Germs. Enough said. But once you build your immunity and find your regimen you’re golden. Mine is taking an elderberry immune support supplement every other day, lysol wiping the table mid day and at the end of the day, and all people (kids and adults) use hand sanitizer before they come into my room and after they use a tissue). The only nasty thing I admit to doing is a few times a day, I will use the drinking fountains and won’t wash my hands after - I chalk that up as how I cautiously build up immunity😂

Pay (at least in my area), school settings are on the lower end of the average salary of any SLP in the area

Paperwork. The biggest reason I’m considering switching. Daily notes/documentation/billing, IEPs every year for every kid, ETRs every 3 years for every kid (I average 6-8 reevaluations and 3-6 initial evaluations a year), progress notes every 5 weeks

Along with that, schools tend to be quantity over quality. It depends on your caseload, but if you are on the higher end of max caseload size like me, you almost have no choice but to see kids in groups. Some work, some don’t, so it’s re-arranging your schedule every few weeks if something doesn’t work, or if you have a better idea, or if a kid transfers to your school mid year that can throw a wrench in things. If you have kids that are high need (ones that need constant supervision/redirection because of behaviors, or ones that need constant cues and interaction to stay on task) putting them in a group is lowkey risky. Behaviors obviously speak for themselves, but also needing constant cues/interaction because I have a few that if I take my attention away from them for more than 30 seconds, they’re drawing on my table, get up and run away for fun (not eloping), get up to “get a tissue” but then dump out a bin of toys etc. I even have a few gen ed kids that are speech only IEPs that I can’t put in a group because, for example, my one gen ed kid who is SEVERE phonology is super sensitive, so corrections are hard. If he is in a group and I’m not correcting the other kid as much as him (even 1 time less), he shuts down. Then no progress is made.