Pros
1) Flexible schedule and telecommute: You probably won't find anything more flexible in our field. 2)Competitive pay: Comparable to brick and mortar NPA. 3)Excellent telehealth resources for therapists that make teletherapy a highly effective and enjoyable way to practice. 4) They try to create a sense of community by bringing everyone together virtually several times a year. 5)Excellent clinical support in the form of office hours and workshops offered year round. 6)Excellent technical support: If you are afraid to try teletherapy due to your experience with "distance learning", forget the harrowing experience of distance learning because Presence technical support makes it a breeze for therapists, schools, and families. 7)Innovative: Exciting to be apart of a company that constantly tries to improve its processes and resources.
Cons
1)Recent bad press: In 2020, the company settled in a case with California Attorney General for engaging "in false advertising and misrepresentations regarding its services over a period of several years". In 2022, the company was ordered to pay Super Duper $3.25M in a copyright and trademark infringement suit. I was concerned about being associated with a company that had this kind of recent bad press. 2)Additional supports needed to help all team members get on board with the latest in gold standard practices: Compared with other local NPAs which provide trainings to clinicians about best practices in serving culturally and linguistically diverse students in a particular region, Presence was less proactive in my experience about supporting their clinicians in being well informed in this area. I saw many examples of inappropriate goals for ELL and multilingual students or completion of evals of culturally and linguistically diverse students using only standardized testing or only a single language. Detailed case histories and interviews were often missing. I feel this will become an issue for the company in future in the more litigious states, and it made me concerned about the reputation of the company during my time working there. 3)Need for more transparency with clinicians: A few of us clinicians were recently faced with having to advocate for ourselves against a pay cut that came without notice. I had been told by the recruiter that there was no minimum commitment for hours, but then the company changed this policy without sending out a memo or announcement. Sometimes you end up with an assignment that would exceed the hours you offered because the company was not clear about the nature of the assignment (e.g., backlogged evals, giving you clients who have an IEP due last month w/o notice); while you will get paid for the extra work it is frustrating to have to push back when you made your availability clear. For some assignments I was paid to attend district trainings that were required to learn how to navigate the school's IEP system, while in other assignments I was not; this was not made clear in advance. They recently cut team meetings for clinicians despite our requests for them, without notice or explanation. 4)Need for more knowledgeable supervision and resources in terms of the details of practicing in a specific state: I experienced a few assignments that were managed by someone who was unclear on the best practices for a specific state for legally defensible IEPs and evaluations. Additional resources are needed for clinicians who practice across state lines to be familiar with local expectations for best practice as case managers.