Is connectionsacademy.com Legit?

This school has been good because it has been remote and got my kid to be home. We liked that option and it is free. The bad news is that you don't really learn anything. We are in our 3rd year at this school and I can't keep her here no more. She struggles so bad and not passing state test because there is no hands on learning and helping especially with her IEP. The live lessons do not keep her attention. There is no support here. They do have extra help for math but their IXL program also does not fix her math struggles. We need something different. If I keep her in this school, she will not make it to college.

If you are looking to replicate the classroom at home this is the platform for you, but be aware that there is a lot of parent involvement. (more than presented) If you are looking for an option to homeschool with help essentially this is not for you. It wasn't what I thought it was. Little audio or video explanations for younger kiddos. Tools are ok but not as helpful as I anticipated from an accredited school.

Be AWARE of the complete incompetence when enrolling your child. It's has been 3 weeks from the time I put an application in. When doing the application you need a ton of documents which took me a while to gather but I had them all and never needed to do extra like some have to go through. Their process to enroll and get a kid started is absolutely ridiculous. There's little to no updates, if you call the info or help line after sending application you never get the same person, that is if you can even get a person to answer. Even after all that it's like they're just hanging out and will get to your child's enrollment when they feel like which at this point has been 3 weeks from the day I submitted everything. I called so many times now just to verify what is next. They said this intent to enroll form from his last school would take the most time because my sons old school has 10 days to send it back. So I was ready. I even called the old school to make sure Connections had the correct email then called to tell Connections. After two weeks I see Connections finally sent this form for them to sign and send back to Connections. I was CC'ed on the email and they still sent it to the wrong person at the old school. So, seeing that, I called my kids old school and it was forwarded to the right person and while I was on the phone with the correct school official she filled it out and sent it back same day. It took Connections TWO weeks to send this form to his old school! Had I not been on top of it all, the old school technically had 10 days to send that back. That right there told me I was in for a long ride. Meanwhile my son has yet to start 10th grade. And to think I placed him into an online school due to him falling behind the year before due to bulling coupled by incompetence is so aggravating! My "to do list" is complete and has been. I've called to find out what were waiting on and they say we're waiting on a school councelor to assign him classes and we're still in "pre start" phase but that I should have nothing to worry about because the teachers will let him skip over what he's missed for the most part. BUT my son was already behind in a core class like Math which I don't think will be easy to just jump into after over a month of classes has already been gone by. I say a month because I was told materials will not be sent out until he is fully enrolled and the shipment takes about a week to arrive so my best estimate is we will be at week 6, maybe even 7 OR MORE weeks to get him started. Which is absurd! I applied to Connections Academy over a week before school started thinking my kid may possibly miss a week of school maybe 2 and even a second week felt like a stretch but over a month, possibly 2? Now I'm afraid I should have went with a different school and starting to think about how that would even work since there really isn't anyone who can help in anyway at Connections when I call. Every call thats actually answered has never given me any Information I didn't already know. Very incompetent! I let a lot of this go as I figured once he does get started communication will be good. Reading reviews is making me think that is probably not going to be the case. In fact, some reviews completely go against what I was told about several things by Connection Academy recruiters. For instance, I was told the "live lessons" were live and that the teacher could see all his/her students and that they could raise their hand if they had a question like they do in a traditional school environment. I'm not sure what to think except my kid needs access to a SAFE place to learn NOW. It's bad when even a high-school kid is asking when he will finally get to start school. All in all I'd say to anyone thinking about applying to a Connections Academy school is to do your research and if you still decide to put that application for enrollment in, DO IT ASAP. I had no issues with being able to provide all the necessary documents and did everything else that comes along after that the same day it was presented and this process is likely going to end up TAKING THE BETTER PART OF TWO WHOLE MONTHS TO GET MATERIALS AND MY SON STARTED INTO HIS 10TH GRADE YEAR!! Which is Absolutely UNACCEPTABLE!! I wish I knew where to go from here. If I knew a better place to enroll him and the exact process would take a short amount of time, I'd most definitely be doing that. I'm currently researching other online schools. However, I feel like I can't trust any of these online schools now. It's just mind blowing to me this can happen. I can't imagine how long this would have taken if I had trouble with a document or two like someone in an earlier review wrote about. Or if my son's old school took the full 10 days to do the intent to enroll form. What the actual heck is going on here? All these negative experiences so far. I pray the actual school actually works and communication is on par.

Not sure if their programs are worth a dime or not. But their staff, their customer service if you will is beyond unacceptable. They could literally care less with their cookie cutter, one size fits all way of doing things. As a parent, I would never give this place a second thought. There's a reason they have NO Social Media Presence, because if they did. And people were treated as we were. They would never enroll another student. They are just that BAD, avoid at all costs!!

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 run around 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 wave 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. 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 your HOMELESS to the many people they transfered me too.(every call I was at least transfered 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. Through out 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.

There is no interaction with other students not even on live lessons which really are not live because you can’t speak or be seen so your just lectured for everything. It’s like having a relationship with a robot. You can hardly get a hold of anyone or find out who your counselor is. All my son does is sit at a computer for hours. Do not do this if you have other activities there is no time. They even have you read daily for PE and take tests on PE. What’s next an art class that is multiple choice and reading. Nothing interactive it’s so cold and stale no wonder so many kids struggled during Covid. I would have quit also…. It’s mind numbing and boring.

This experience has been a NIGHTMARE. I spent weeks trying to understand how the system worked. It was not streamlined, easy to navigate, and it was poorly taught. The math guided lessons were a nightmare. I can not believe I didn’t leave this school sooner. I’ve found one that has a small monthly fee and it’s worth its weight in gold. The woman at connections, said “I was a life coach too, but after a YEAR, we got the hang of it.” A year!!! No thank you. We are thrilled with this new school.

High workload and not engaging enough. "Learn at your own pace" is nonexistent in this online school. Some teachers are good, some teachers are bad. Therefore i give it 2 stars.

Best school. I have 3 kids that attend here one is M.R. and online schooling was the best choice I made. Some of the others where to much and wasn't available to help him. Connection academy has always encouraged him to work at his level. They call or do face time with him to help him in any way they can. They also supply everything you need to teach your kids. We love it and the staff there...

Date of experience: December 13, 2021