Connections Academy Reviews

I personally think the curriculum is a bit much, as if high-academia Harvard professors without any kids of their own wrote this stuff "for children". It is pretty dry and repetitive, and takes way too long to complete most days. So my husband and I are planning on pulling our son during winter break and going back to homechool for now, that way I can control better how much time we spend and what we learn and incorporate my other kids into our learning as well. Altogether I don't think I would recommend this kind of learning for big families with lots of small children. However this might work well for families with one child and a parent who can dedicate the majority of their day to teaching that child as if they were still in public school (6 hours a day, 5 days a week).

The teacher even lied about her reading test scores. So at the end of 4th grade they told me this school was a good fit for my daughter and that she could finish the school year but she can't return. I've paid so much money to this school. It wasn't right to dismiss her like that. I was always curious with her teachers even when they lied on her test results. I say plenty of students turn in some of their assignments the day before the deadline on assignments that were date stamped in our group discussions. Way later than my daughter's were turned in. It's just not right....

Finally as my local school was starting and I was afraid of going to jail or getting fines I could not afford, I looked it up and found many people who could help. They were shocked I was lied to and offered me immediate assistance. These people are highly unprofessional. It kept me up at night and I experienced many panic attacks. DO NOT ENROLL YOUR KIDS HERE. It's obvious they don't care about the kids. Fast forward to today, 3 weeks later, 3 days into the local school year, I get a call from them. PROBABLY wanting me to explain my entire situation AGAIN. I cannot tell you how degrading it is to repeat your name and that you're HOMELESS to the many people they transferred me to (every call I was at least transferred to 4 different people for 6 hours a day). Please do your self a favor and pay for private education or bite the bullet and put them in public school. I wouldn't refer even the darkest people to this company.

P.S. Throughout this entire process I received many emails and texts about how I hadn't given them the information I told them a million times I DIDNT HAVE.

P.SS. I also got an email that they had the Mckinney Vento Act form on their website, and I even sent and uploaded my own. Another LIE.

1) Our 2nd grade child was starting to fall behind in core classes mainly math. We first noticed this in early Sept. This was brought to the attention of the teacher very early on in the school year. As soon as we noticed we attempted to get her to help us come up with an action plan. Instead, she opined that he's doing okay - averaging a C so - he's passing....When we explained that it was taking us HOURS and way too much assistance on our end to get him through each lesson - she stated that basically hes our kid and its our job. No empathy or concern from her whatsoever. Teacher seemed unbothered and never addressed our request from help. Instead, she suggested a coding club. Which doesn't make too much sense. After months of falling behind, our family finally decided it was best to hire a paid online teacher and it was only then did our child start to under stand the concepts. The issue here is this: teacher and administrative staff notified basically wrote us back and said, "it's hard being a teacher/coach isn't it". Well - no I replied. In fact, I happen to be a virtual instructor myself. The issue was that this particular teacher had reason after reason, excuse after another excuse in canceling her classes and did not do well in terms of engagement and classroom management. Maybe she was overworked and they're giving teachers too many students at once. I am not sure. Nonetheless, we do not feel our student got the attention he deserved.

2) This same teacher did not watch some of the other students when there actually were live lessons and multiple times my student had to endure other 2nd grades cursing and saying very peculiar and scary things in the chat.

3) Last year, we also attended the program (different teachers of course) and our student was in 1st grade however his test scoring and benchmarks were along the lines of 6th grade reading and 4th grade math. He has lost all of this now.

4) Our son was treated with contempt after bringing this to the attention of admin. Thereafter, his "teacher" had 1 last class in the entire month of April and did not acknowledge him one time. It was weird.

This teacher is LOUD and almost appears to be under the influence of something be it anxiety meds or otherwise. She is IN YOUR face. Admin has to take notice of this and I have heard from other parents that they too have shared concerns and they have largely remained ignored. Our family is now working with an investigative response team that apparently is and has been inquiring on the Florida Connections Academy. I wont go into detail with this but they have grasped the brevity of the concerns we have had this school year and they are working to narrow the issues down as to whether these problems are systemic or originating from this one teacher or perhaps is it the Principal or a little of both. All in all - because of this 23-24 school year we can not recommend the FCA at this time. We do hope that it goes back to quality it had in years prior. We hope the issues can get ironed out.

I wish I could disregard it to ensure a healthier mental state but I want her to succeed & know she has it in her to do amazing things, though this school isn’t the training that will bring it out in children so young. I chose C.A. because it was supposed to be community based & got great reviews, but the teacher only recently (once) gave the kids time to talk a little in between the reaching & math Live Lessons they have once a week, thus far. That’s all the community time we have had time for, not that there's many options for it otherwise. The teacher is also half dead in that she seems to have no energy or is not at all an animated person, which I felt should have been considered with young children. Monotone.