Connections Academy Reviews

My child has been attending this school for the last few years and I have to say it's the best school I've come across. My son is a straight A student here and has been part of atleast 4 different clubs each year (and he's still in elementary school). He did not thrive in the public school after only 6 months there. He is about to start his 4th year at connections without complaints. I very much enjoy the socialization they provide with the public events multiple times a year and monitored group activities in the clubs and classrooms.

They've been sued for selling students' private data and student performance metrics. The "testing" is third party companies that pay for products to be used in lessons. The curriculum is disorganized, the teachers are disorganized and had to be replaced by another disorganized teacher. We have Deborah ** in Long Beach now. I'm concerned.

I would not recommend this school to anyone. Not only is the workload overwhelming, but it also feels like the teachers are more focused on failing students than helping them succeed. There seems to be a lack of care or concern for whether a child actually excels. You would expect teachers to want their students to grow and achieve, but instead, it often feels like they are indifferent and unwilling to provide the support needed. At times, it even comes across as if they are okay with students falling behind rather than helping them improve.

When my daughter started with FCA in 7th grade, it was fine. Not perfect, but good for us. I had control of her scheduler, her live lessons were consistent and the workload was rigorous but reasonable. Now she's in 9th grade, and we are both miserable. They've taken away the ability for parents to run the scheduler, so she's always stressing about overdue lessons even though they aren't actually.

Their teachers a great and I'm not sure what these people are talking about with the work load being too high? My kids generally finish a full day's work in 1 to 3 hours and they're pretty spread out in grade. My issue is with the curriculum. The kids are reading stories that glorify Aztecs' culture and making masks in art for their gods, reading stories in English class full of Spanish words (which is terrible for a 1st grader who is trying to learnhow to read English), and the Math resembles remedial Math from the 90s. The live lessons are only like 15 minutes long and there's only 1 to 2 a day 4 days a week.

If I could give 0 stars I would, my child’s HR Advisor never not once communicated with me, I attempted several times to ask questions through email, text and phone calls and was ignored the whole 6 months my child was enrolled. When I finally unenrolled her was the only time she even emailed back with “oh I can help you with that” for her to not even help me still. I have sent 5 emails this week and last week so I can get her grades so she can start school, of course they have gone ignored. Call customer service to get another number to call and no one answered. Ridiculous that I have to jump through hoops to talk to my child’s teacher or get grades so she can start school.

If I could give this place 0 stars I would. Please do not enroll with this place. The enrollment process is complete trash. I was enrolling both of my children. I used the same documents for both of my kids. They accepted my son and rejected my daughter. I uploaded proof of residency documents at least 4 or 5 times each time, they were still rejected. I just said forget. All of you that have similar experiences or worst experience, reach out to the Department of Education. Do not let them get away with this.

School is not fit for children with IEPs. The workload is so heavy we almost always get behind because I work from home, I work from 9-5:30. I have to be her teacher for what she does not learn in class or cannot do so I actually work from 9 to 11 and weekends trying to help her. They say it's small group but it is not. It does not accommodate and they do not know their students' abilities.

Hello, I'm currently a 10th grader in Connections Academy, and it's not great. While I enjoy the flexibility and whatnot, everything is overwhelming. The workload is too heavy and you do not get the help you would get in brick-and-mortar schools. Live Lessons could be helpful; though I struggle with focusing because of lack of accommodating for such. along with this, the school is extremely lonely. People do not come off clearly through text; and the way they seem on the internet may be different from how they are in real life, causing a bit of a barrier to know who you could get along with, since you cant read text in exactly the way they are typing. With this, you hardly get any real life social interaction besides the repetitive field trips that are not always possible to go to because of distance, lack of time, no people to take you because they are working, etcetera.

Deeply frustrated with the enrollment experience I had with Connections Academy. This has truly been the worst enrollment process I have ever encountered. Despite submitting official documents directly from my children’s doctor’s office and their previous school, none of them were accepted. The onboarding process was excessively long and unnecessarily complicated, and I was surprised to learn that Connections Academy expected me, the parent, to handle the submission of all school and immunization records rather than requesting them directly from the previous school, as is standard practice elsewhere.

The principal is a poor communicator and this trickles down to staff. Synchronous classes are randomly changed and their solution to everything is to give more work and communicate this through vague emails.

Y'all single out the ** students. It is horrible to know that the principal withdraw my son without my permission. No help from the teacher. She gave my son bad grades for no reason. They never contacted me.

They scammed me on my diploma years ago. I transferred there from public school in 12th grade then whenever it was time to receive my diploma they said there was a problem with my transcript or that they never received it. Tried contacting them for weeks. Nobody responded or if they did they gave me the run around. So my entire 12th grade year didn’t count because I wasn’t enrolled properly

My daughter has dyslexia, they asked for documents that don't exist. I spoke with multiple representatives that didn't have a clue about educational services for students with an IEP. I felt they are discriminating against students with disabilities. My child is fully capable of doing the work, she just has to work harder. They intentionally are asking for documents that don't exist to prevent her from registering.

A SCAM. Do not send your children here. This place lies to us about enrollment for over a month. Kept giving different excuses as to why they kept archiving her enrollment. And did not care at all. They told me there was no one else to talk to about it. Horrible

Connections Academy Lighthouse Connections Academy - Michigan. I am deeply disappointed and highly disturbed by the blatant disregard for the rights of students with disabilities at this institution. What should be a safe and inclusive environment has instead become a place where discrimination is normalized, and exclusion is routine. Despite clear protections under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which mandates equal access to school programs and activities for students with disabilities, this school has repeatedly violated those rights. A simple reasonable accommodation request -intended to ensure equal opportunity- was not only denied but openly dismissed. As a result, all students with disabilities were openly outcasted and excluded from field trips, school events and activities, while staff are always observed away participating on their own and away from all students and parents.

This was the worst experience I have ever had. Any if the paperwork I uploaded was acceptable. I uploaded 3 different types of “proof of residency” and none of it was good enough for them. I uploaded the attendance form which had his attendance from freshman to junior year and that wasn’t good enough. I gave up and enrolled my son somewhere else. I highly recommend not wasting your time with this “school.”

I hate Florida Connections Academy. My daughter has only been in enrolled for two weeks and we still can't navigate the system. They just send email after email and teachers are not available to support and don't care enough to answer the questions properly when they are "available." There is no real learning taking place. They expect my daughter to do testing without the Special Education Department providing her with any support even though my daughter has a documented disability. I want to give the school zero stars. Instead of enjoying our weekend, my family is angry, frustrated, and miserable.

Applying to GCA and the runaround is unbelievably unprofessional and incompetent. They will mislead you, lie to you, and every person will tell you a different story. Be careful that they will tell you at the very last minute that your child did not get in, as they have met their quota, even though they had been texting, emailing, and calling you for months to finish the application. Doesn't matter that they have had your completed application for 3 weeks, as they will still deny you in the end. You will be left scrambling to find an alternate school, so do not wait until it is close to the start of school to apply elsewhere.

The workload on students is not reasonable. Overall design is very unrealistic. A second grader would get about 50+ assignments per week and they expect students to digest it quickly. I hope that they can improve it soon.

We have not started school but the registration has been a headache. Because I started my application in my name, proof of residence had to have my name. Only thing with my name was Internet bill and that was rejected. Then I submitted power bill and it was rejected because under husband's name. Then it was our waste bill with BOTH of our names and that was rejected. It's like the people running this academy have no common sense in putting the information together and seeing clearly that the documents show proof of residence. What a nuisance. If our last attempt doesn't go through, I'm looking for another online school. It's been a big waste of time so far!

Tried to register for this school. Sent in child’s birth certificate showing both mine and my husband's name. Also sent in a current utility bill with both mine and my husband's name on it as well as my driver's license proving our residence. Since I am not on the mortgage they wanted my husband to sign a form stating that I and our child lived with him. That is absurd and I chose not to register with this school. I still receive multiple calls and emails wanting me to continue our registration. I guess so they can get their funding. I’m not having my husband sign a paper stating that we live with him when we are married, just because I am not on the mortgage. A utility bill with both names, driver licenses with stated address and birth certificate with both parents' names that match the utility bill verified the residence. So glad we didn’t register with this school after reading reviews.

Connections Academy is incredibly misleading. They tell you upfront that you should expect to work 30 hours a week, but the daily assignments they give are so minimal you can easily finish them in under an hour. So why force this unrealistic “hour count” that makes no logical sense? It feels like a system built on pretending to be rigorous rather than actually being educational.

I have had my kids in TNCA and GACA. I like the school and appreciate this program. However I had unsatisfying experiences with both schools, with more of issues being with TNCA. When my daughter was in 11th grade she took AP Biology the teacher was hardly there, canceled class without notifying students and was very unprofessional there was nothing we could do about that but just let it be. Then we later would have to transfer as we moved to GA.

They are giving my kid way too many tests, like every week. If I go into my child's weekly work board thing, there's a 90% chance I will see a test, and I also find it annoying as a parent, same with my child, who finds it annoying. I do not recommend this school unless you like being rushed with tests

My daughter is three weeks late until the second semester and she got overwhelmed with work and I think the counselor miss ** doesn’t need to be working there and the teachers are not communicating with the students and I think 10 assignments a day is a little bit ridiculous.

I attended this school for 2 years. I am until next year for my sophomore year, I convinced my parents to enroll me because it was supposed to be a self paced school, not true. The school is good for Reading but that's it, the Math is only hard because they make it harder than it is supposed to be, like the Math assignments for example it takes 2-3 hours to complete a Math assignment most of the time. It was stated that each assignment takes 1h max. It is not true, all the things they say are not true. The funny thing is that even if you try your hardest in Math for 2-3 hours you don't even understand half of it. The first page of the lesson shows a YouTube video and it looks easy but once you are about to finish they shove things in the last page without any explanation on how that equation works.

This is a horrible online school. My son was discriminated and kicked out of the school and withdrawn without my consent because of his disability. They told me the school was not appropriate for my son and told me to look for another school options. This need to be shut down and need to be some loud suits and involved because they are breaking all types of rules. They overwork it with all this unnecessary schoolwork. It’s a lot of discrimination/racism going on with the school.

Connections is not a good school. While they claim they are flexible and understanding, DO NOT DARE get behind on your work because they will HOUND you and threaten truancy VERY QUICK! My kids got behind, while yes significantly, I was just diagnosed with cancer and while they SEEMED understanding, would NOT let my boys catch up because they were “so behind”. While they were only talking about my one child, they unknowingly unenrolled my younger child, who looked forward to a speech class every Thursday WITHOUT warning. I called Connections and talked to a representative online who was able to look at all of the email and did confirm that they did NOT mention my other child EVER. I recommend Astravo.org they have FLEXIBLE. Ruth ** and Ms. ** should be replaced.

Connections Academy does not make learning easy for students. Besides being online and allowing time to make-up work, the material requires too much. Most assignments have 30 pages for children to read each. With all this technology, videos should be done for these lessons. Not in addition to. I am in undergrad and I feel like my children have more reading than I do. It’s crazy. Great concept but poor execution. I am disappointed to say the least. Traditional school was not this intense. Teachers had 1 hour and assigned reading material/homework after class if any. I have been here 3 years and will look for other options. Technology is too advanced for options to be so poor.

We chose Connections Academy for our Kindergartener because we were worried about him being mistreated in a brick and mortar school (he has severe adhd and possibly mild asd). At first it seemed like such an ideal compromise between public school and homeschool, but I have quickly realized that this is not a good fit for our family. I have a 5 year old, 3 year old and 11 month old, and when I tell you it is near impossible to be my son's learning coach and work one-on-one with him for a minimum of maybe 5 hours a day WITH a 3 year old and baby needing my attention constantly, I seriously mean it! It causes so much stress. My son loves the routine and "checklist" mentality of the work, but as a mom to 3 littles I cannot do this on my own...

My daughter went to Connections Academy from Kindergarten through the 4th grade. Her lost grade was 1 C, all the rest were A's and B's. We had a couple of family emergencies which caused us to turn in some assignments late. We started getting a paper trail telling me she had more assignments late that what she really had. Then we got into an accident and fell back a little but the assignments always got caught up and she always passed her test.

Choose a better school because the learning coach doing more work than the teacher who getting paid to teach our kids. They on live for about a hour so what can you really be teaching in a hour. They have 5 homework assignments every day. All you hear it's a fast paced school but homeschool should be at the kids pace. I have a kindergarten and 4 grader. They expect me to print out work for my kindergarten then take a pic and send it in. Like really. So if you not able to get the library to print it out it put your child behind then on top that I have to pay for to print it out. Will let my kids finish the semester out and I rather home school myself

My wife was randomly logged out and my kid unenrolled for no reason and without explanation. After two and a half hours, of being switched back and forth from one person to another and being on hold, she had to make another account and re-enroll him. Now my kid has to restart his entire year's school work from the beginning and my wife resubmit all of his paperwork because Connections Academy can't fix whatever caused the problem.

I fought for 3 weeks to get my kids into school. A little about my situation: we are between houses and I could not provide the residence information they want. I let them know day after day we are in a motel and I did not want to unenroll and move my kids when we move, so online seemed to be a better option. WRONG. So after a full week of calling and getting the runaround ONE single guy helped me fill out the Mckinney Vento Act. I was told I'd get a phone call from them to continue, and they'd waive the residence form. (FYI when enrolling, there is a page you can explain your situation on. This was 2 weeks ago on the dot.) Day after day I called about the status of my kids' enrollment. Many of the staff told me I could not contact the Mckinney Vento act people, they had to contact me. LIE.

My last review was taken down for a curious reason. Likely because I was able to articulate the complex set of issues this Florida on-line school program is having. While I do not have the time or energy to again break apart some of the issues we personally had as I did in my post prior to this, I will get to the central issues of our particular experience. First, I gave 3 stars merely for the fact that it is online and there are real safety concerns about public schools system in these days. Online is a better option IMO in terms of physical safety. Otherwise, I would have only gave them 1-2 stars.

This school is terrible. They lock Assignments so your child can not do the lessons and so I'm trying to withdraw my child from the program and I already gave them the information about him attending Time4learning and is refusing to withdraw him.

This is the worse school ever! They will lock down lessons that you can't do instead of skipping it and going on causing lessons to overload and then they kick you out of school causing a problem finding another school! Too much for student and parent to read and too much work! Uncaring and rude! Find another school! You will thank me if you do!

If you love your child, don’t subject them to the overloading of dull work this school would have you and your child give your life to! Staff can do nothing to change the workload (thought I was lied to by staff about how some classes were removed to ease up the tension, though it would’ve been a crappy solution anyway as I don't want my child to miss out on things she might need to know for testing or life) or the work itself as it's all programed by someone else. The suggestions were all common sense stuff I told them I was already doing. Connections Academy has robbed us of so much joy we could have had given more time to go out and do things, and has stressed my relationship with my child in such a way that regular school never has!

My son has not been able to watch a live lesson since school started. Emails to the help desk ARE NEVER RESPONDED TO. I'VE currently been on hold to talk to tech support for 31 min 2 sec. This is SUPER FRUSTRATING.