Vantaggi
I have worked here about 10 years, if you are in a school setting, I used my days off to recuperate. If you are in the residential assistance setting, forget about recuperating altogether and there are no real days off for you. Benefits used to be good 10 years ago, unfortunately, now it's time to consider obamacare. Only one Pro i can think of is I met a few great men and women who truly put their blood, sweat, and tears to get the job done, spent money out of their own pocket, went above and beyond their duties to help those kids, only to receive brush off, the backstab, the wrongful and unfounded suspension or terminations, the "being thrown under the bus" by upper management and higher ups so they can wash their hands, pose for their website, magazine, bend over for money from their sponsors at their yearly get togethers without recognizing their staff not even once in my 10 years with a raise.
Svantaggi
The majority of the population we worked with were not special needs childre, they were just very misbehaved, aggressive thugs and we were just their stepping stone prior to their extended stay at some juvenile detention center. Let's not kid ourselves. Prepare for them to bite you, fight you, choke you, try to kill you, or just make an allegation against your character for the simple fact that they just might not like you and get away with it without a single consequence from any authority once being cleared. My recommendation to you is if you do get assaulted, do not hesitate to press charges, i cannot emphasize that any clearer. When these little thugs tell you they're going to kill you and your unborn child by punching or kicking your stomach, they are no longer a child in your eyes, be prepared to take serious action, you have been warned. We did however get maybe less than a handful of kids that really and truly needed our help. It was rewarding to see those seldom few move back to society completely changed. Misogyny is apparently a main requirement to be in a "higher up" position and if you can top that with some addiction to a poison of your choice, be sure you have secured yourself a long term seat in the top dog circle, if you get what I'm trying to say. Don't expect a raise, don't expect anything, don't expect structure, don't expect support from your supervisor or human resource, don't expect anything period, get out while you can.