Admissions and Enrollment Coordinator

For over 30 years, Gersh Autism has empowered students on the autism spectrum to reach their full potential. Serving individuals aged 5-21 across the U.S. and Puerto Rico, our network of K-12 schools provides personalized education tailored to each student’s unique learning style. We offer comprehensive therapeutic services—speech, physical, occupational therapy, and more—along with vocational training for older students. Our dedicated team collaborates with families to ensure academic, social, and emotional growth, preparing students for success beyond the classroom.

At Gersh Autism, we are committed to helping individuals on the autism spectrum lead fulfilling, independent lives.

The Admissions Coordinator serves as a trusted guide for families exploring placement at Gersh Autism Academy and owns the family journey from initial inquiry through enrollment and start. This consultative sales role combines relationship-building, persuasive communication, program expertise, sound judgment, attention to detail, and disciplined follow-through. The Coordinator is expected to understand each family's needs, clearly communicate the value of Gersh's programs, remove barriers whenever possible, and consistently move qualified families toward enrollment with empathy and precision

This position supports multiple school locations and requires regular travel among Gersh schools in West Hempstead, Hempstead, Queens, and Huntington, New York.

Important: This is a consultative sales position and requires previous admissions or sales experience in an educational setting.

Success in This Role

Success is measured by enrollment results, the quality of the family experience, pipeline accuracy, responsiveness, relationship strength, and the ability to move work forward independently. The Admissions Coordinator must think critically, learn quickly, exercise practical common-sense judgment, identify barriers early, and bring thoughtful solutions rather than simply reporting problems. The Coordinator must also remain adaptable when priorities, campus needs, or enrollment conditions change.

Duties and Responsibilities

Family Engagement and Enrollment Conversion

•  Own the family journey. Manage assigned prospective families from initial inquiry through enrollment and first day, ensuring every case has a documented status, next step, responsible party, and follow-up date.

•  Respond and follow up with urgency. Contact prospective families promptly, maintain consistent follow-up, and prevent qualified leads from becoming stagnant or disengaged.

•  Conduct consultative discovery. Ask thoughtful questions to understand the student's needs, the family's priorities, placement timeline, attorney status, and potential barriers to enrollment.

•  Deliver compelling program presentations. Explain Gersh's programs, services, approach, and differentiators accurately and persuasively through phone conversations, virtual meetings, written communication, tours, open houses, and other recruitment events.

•  Create a high-quality family experience. Build trust, communicate with empathy, and make families feel welcomed, informed, and confident in taking the next step with Gersh.

•  Meet or exceed enrollment goals. Consistently achieve monthly, quarterly, and annual minimum enrollment expectations and contribute to campus and organizational enrollment targets.

•  Advance qualified families. Convert interest into completed applications, screenings, acceptance decisions, contracts, and starts by maintaining momentum and addressing obstacles proactively.

Pipeline Ownership, Data Accuracy, and Quality Assurance

•  Manage the pipeline daily. Review assigned inquiries and applicants each day, prioritize time-sensitive and at-risk cases, and take action on stalled families.

•  Maintain complete records. Enter all inquiry, referral, family-contact, tour, application, screening, decision, and next-step information accurately and promptly in the designated CRM/database system.

•  Document meaningful context. Record clear, factual notes that allow Admissions, Legal, and campus partners to understand the family's status, barriers, commitments, and required follow-up without relying on verbal history.

•  Forecast and communicate. Maintain an informed view of likely enrollments, risks, and timing, and communicate material changes promptly to appropriate stakeholders.

•  Monitor and interpret performance. Prepare, maintain, and communicate enrollment statistics, including inquiries, contacts, tours, applications, screenings, acceptances, enrollments, conversion rates, and classroom capacity across programs.

•  Audit for quality. Regularly review records and reports for missing information, inaccuracies, duplicate activity, stalled cases, and process gaps; correct issues and elevate recurring risks with proposed solutions.

Program and Process Expertise

•  Maintain expert-level program knowledge. Develop and continuously update a strong command of Gersh's campuses, programs, student profiles, services, classroom models, available capacity, admissions criteria, schedules, and family supports.

•  Translate complex information clearly. Explain programmatic, legal, tuition, and funding information to families in accessible language, remain within the scope of the role, and connect families to the appropriate subject-matter expert when needed.

•  Apply policies consistently. Follow all admissions policies and procedures established by the Vice President of Admissions and Senior Director of Admissions while using sound judgment within defined decision-making authority.

•  Execute the admissions contact strategy. Follow the telephone-contact and pipeline-management strategy established by the Vice President of Admissions and Senior Director of Admissions, including required call volume, tour activity, conversion activity, and funnel management expectations.

•  Serve as a knowledgeable resource. Share accurate information with peers and campus partners and provide training, coaching, or process support as assigned.

•  Stay current. Proactively learn and retain updates to programs, procedures, technology, enrollment priorities, and legal or funding processes that affect prospective families.

Relationship Development and Outreach

•  Build and sustain referral relationships. Cultivate credible, responsive partnerships with attorneys, medical professionals, evaluators, school-district contacts, community organizations, and other referral sources.

•  Generate new opportunities. Plan and execute targeted outreach campaigns that produce qualified leads and partnerships aligned with Gersh's admissions goals.

•  Represent Gersh professionally. Participate in networking events, professional conferences, community meetings, school fairs, open houses, and industry events to increase awareness and trust in Gersh's programs and services.

•  Follow through on relationships. Maintain organized referral-source records, honor commitments, provide timely updates, and identify opportunities for continued engagement.

Cross-Functional and Cross-Campus Partnership

•  Partner across functions. Work closely with the Admissions team, Legal and Advocacy, Corporate Management, school leadership, clinicians, operations, marketing, and other stakeholders to move families through the process.

•  Coordinate recruitment activities. Plan and participate in tours, open houses, fairs, outreach events, screenings, and special events involving prospective students and families.

•  Communicate early and clearly. Share decisions, risks, capacity concerns, family updates, and dependencies with the right stakeholders before they become urgent problems.

•  Exercise practical judgment. Independently resolve routine issues, gather missing information, identify workable options, and escalate when a decision, risk, or exception exceeds the role's authority.

•  Adapt to organizational needs. Shift priorities, support multiple campuses, and respond to high-volume periods or emerging initiatives with flexibility, urgency, creativity, and a solution-oriented approach.

Qualifications

•  Relevant admissions experience. Direct experience in admissions within an educational setting, ideally a private school, special education program, or therapeutic school environment.

•  Consultative sales capability. Demonstrated ability to discover needs, build trust, communicate value, address concerns, maintain follow-up, and move prospective families toward a decision.

•  Critical thinking and learning agility. Ability to absorb complex information quickly, connect details across cases, ask strong questions, and apply knowledge accurately in new situations.

•  Resourceful problem-solving. Ability to anticipate obstacles, investigate root causes, generate practical options, use sound common-sense judgment, and move work forward with appropriate independence.

•  Creativity and adaptability. Ability to adjust messaging, outreach, priorities, and approach based on the needs of the family, campus, market, or situation while remaining aligned with policy and goals.

•  Relationship-building and influence. Ability to establish credibility with families, referral sources, and internal partners and create an engaging experience that motivates qualified families to choose Gersh.

•  Ownership and results orientation. Strong accountability for outcomes, consistent follow-through, resilience, and the willingness to do what is reasonably required to achieve enrollment goals.

•  Organization and accuracy. Ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment while maintaining meticulous records, deadlines, and follow-up.

•  Communication. Highly developed verbal, written, presentation, and interpersonal communication skills, including the ability to tailor information to different audiences.

•  Microsoft 365 proficiency. Demonstrated proficiency with Microsoft Teams, Excel, Word, and PowerPoint, including using Teams for communication and collaboration; Excel for trackers, sorting, filtering, formulas, and data review; Word for professional documents; and PowerPoint for clear, audience-appropriate presentations.

•  Technology fluency. Ability to use a CRM/database accurately, learn new systems quickly, and use available tools to organize work, analyze information, and communicate effectively.

•  Customer-service mindset. Experience providing responsive, thoughtful service and creating a consistently positive experience for families.

•  Coachability. Receptive to feedback and willing to adopt new systems, procedures, and frameworks, including letting go of practices that no longer serve the role or organization.

•  Education. Bachelor's degree preferred.

•  Travel. Valid driver's license and willingness to travel regularly among campuses and out of state as required.

•  Language skills. Bilingual proficiency is a plus.

Schedule and Availability Expectations

•  Maintain availability for predetermined campus tour schedules, open houses, recruitment events, and family appointments.

•  Work evenings and weekends when required by scheduled events, family needs, or enrollment priorities.

•  Travel regularly across assigned campuses and maintain extended availability during peak enrollment periods.

Physical Requirements

•  Ability to help keep students safe from themselves and others and, in some cases, implement Crisis Prevention Intervention (CPI) procedures, including therapeutic holds, in accordance with training and policy.

•  Ability to remove oneself from potentially harmful situations and, when necessary, assist in removing others from unsafe situations quickly.

•  Ability to stand, walk, bend, kneel, and move throughout the workday.

•  Ability to lift at least 50-65 pounds and to assist, guide, or physically support students of varying sizes when required.

•  Ability to physically intervene when required to ensure safety and in accordance with CPI training.

•  Ability to maintain attention and focus in a dynamic, high-stimulation environment.

•  Ability to manage multiple responsibilities and shift priorities quickly.

•  Ability to exercise sound judgment and make decisions in high-pressure or safety-sensitive situations.

•  Ability to work effectively as part of a team and maintain professional relationships.

•  Ability to perform duties under stress, including during behavioral escalations.

Additional Responsibilities

Other duties as assigned will be approached with flexibility, urgency, accountability, and a solution-oriented attitude, particularly during high-volume periods, staffing transitions, or cross-campus initiatives.

Benefits 

Gersh Autism offers a competitive compensation package, including comprehensive health and retirement benefits, professional development opportunities, and a supportive work environment committed to your personal and professional growth.  

• Health Care Plan (Medical, Dental & Vision) 
• Retirement Plan (401k matching) 
• Life Insurance (Basic, Voluntary & AD&D)  
• Family Leave (Maternity, Paternity) 
• Short-Term & Long-Term Disability 
• Training & Development 

Base salary $70,000 plus $5,000 KRA bonus