1. Concerns from Job Coaches
1. Lost four personal days. When do we get them back? Also lost 15 min. a day.
Up until this school year we had eight paid personal days available for us to use (not accumulate)
during that school year. We also used to get paid 7.25 hours each day – now we get paid 7 hours.
2. No pay raises in over four years.
It has been at least four years since we have received a pay raise. Raises used to come with year-
end evaluations which we also no longer receive.
3. Will teachers be able to visit job sites?
This was discussed at the beginning of the semester, but we hadn‟t heard anything more about it.
We have the chance to see the students in a school setting occasionally but the teachers never see
the students‟ performance at a training site. The students‟ behavior at a training site is noticeably
different and we think it would benefit all educators of our students to see both sides.
4. Will there be summer employment? There has been no follow through with work sites.
This was written before we knew about the letter that was recently given to us to bring to the
training sites. We have since delivered these letters but we don‟t know if any further action is
being taken.
5. A Behavioral plan with set consequences.
We would rather explain this one to you in person.
6. Better communication between administration and job coaches.
Since our jobs keep us out of the building during the school day communication is even more
important to us to keep us „in the loop‟. We used to have monthly job coach meetings. They are
rare occurrences now.
7. Not using disability as an excuse for work or behavior issues.
The staff needs to stop using the students disability as an excuse for their behavior. When a
student/s get into a verbal or physical altercation the other students are being told “they can‟t help
it, it‟s their disability”. That is wrong. It is starting to carry over into the job sites and it is not
accepted at the sites. They are adults and must be treated that way. There must be some kind of
discipline for their action.
I have had students over the last couple of years that have not liked certain jobs at the job site.
I‟ve always felt that if a student is sent to a site, he or she should try all jobs available if they are
physically able. Now if a student doesn‟t like certain jobs either parents get involved and the
student is moved or we are told to make allowances for said student because of his or her
disability. Moods, bad behavior, bad language, bad attendance is all allowed because of
disabilities. Everyone has certain limits. I feel it‟s our job as coaches to show students they can
function and succeed if they will try. We don‟t seem to have back up support from parents. We
hear comments from students all the time that they don‟t want to get a job or their parents don‟t
want them to work because of their SSI being reduced. Is there a screening process for the
parents and students that really want to develop living skills?
8. Need follow-up from school with new management at job sites.
I am concerned because no one has come out to most of the training sites.There are a lot of new
managers at the hospital and no one has come to meet them.We are trying to get summer

2. employment there, and I believe it would be important for someone to meet these new people to
explain our programs.
9. Violent behavior between students. Board’s reaction to this matter?
I had a student on a job site that used a large cutting knife and was banging and cutting on a table.
When asked to stop he told me he couldn‟t control his violent impulses, and didn‟t feel like
stopping. Thankfully this impulse wasn‟t used on another student or employee. When the
student was removed from the site, the parent said they were surprised he lasted that long. We
have no prior knowledge or information as to what problems students have. For our own safety it
should be disclosed to us if a student has violent tendencies.
We had a couple of incidents where students have threatened job coaches, teachers, and staff with
knives, scissors, staplers, etc. Our question: What is the procedure to have the student removed
from school? We understand and follow the steps of behavioral problems which are: 1. Verbal –
write up. 2. Sent to office with write up. 3. Sent home for three days. What are the steps to have
student removed from school when it becomes a life threatening situation? (more than once with
the same student.) Is the board aware of the actions against their employees? Will the board
stand behind us if we file a criminal suit against the student?
10. Sharing Medical Information About Students with the Job Coaches.
One of the most frustrating issues for the Job coaches is the fact that minimal information is given
to us concerning health issues or other concerns about the students we supervise on the job sites.
We are told to make copies of their emergency forms which at best contain minimal information.
More times than not, their health issues and or medications which they take are not listed. It is
imperative that when we are out at a job site we have this information. If a student is diabetic, has
a seizure disorder, or other health issues which directly affect their work abilities, we need to
know this, especially should an emergency occur.
Case in point, I had a student last semester who was not supposed to lift or move anything more
than 5lbs. It was not until the last two weeks of the semester that I found this information out
from the student herself. She has rods in her spine and should not have been moving conference
tables and chairs. Nowhere was this stated on her emergency sheet, nor did anyone inform me of
this.
I also have a student who is diabetic and did not have this information available either. I had
another student who had tremors in his hands from medication and could not work properly at his
job site because it consisted of using his hands the entire time. He was finally removed from the
site after the director of work site called Macomb Academy and informed them that he was a
safety issue. I have now begun to ask the students themselves if there is something I should be
aware of concerning their health, so if an emergency should arise, I can act accordingly.
At previous school districts where I have been employed, this information was given to us
because it was detrimental to the well being of the students. We understand the confidentiality
agreements connected with this information, but we are staff members and should have this at our
disposal.

3. 11. CPI Training
Hearing that we may have more “emotionally impaired” students entering our school, we feel it is
imperative that ALL job coaches have CPI or similar training. Having our students in public we
have no support if a student “goes off” with destructive or harmful behavior. In the past we have
had students threaten us or others where it was up to us to disarm them, etc. If things had not
gone well in these cases, would our jobs have been at stake? If harm had come to us or another
student would it have been the fault of the job coach not having things under control? I am
guessing that the answer is yes in both cases. The teachers have stated that this is a waste as we
cannot use CPI in the school. But we‟re not in the school. What can we do to defend ourselves
or the other students? The boundaries are not clear. Please offer us some sort of training in this
area so that we have a sense of security in knowing what is expected in an extreme case of “bad
behavior”.