ConnectionsAcademy
Reviews and Complaints

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.

My daughter was enrolled in Connections Academy for her fall Freshman year. She started about 6 weeks into the school year, the teachers expected her to be completely caught up with all courses before Thanksgiving break or she would be subject academic probation. The teachers didn't give any leniency to the fact that she was behind over 200 lessons from all 8 courses. They wouldn't answer her emails or phone calls or even my calls. So with the help of myself, her step dad, abd her grandparents we helped her with figure out how todo the assignments. Teachers graded her lessons, gave her faiing grades then made her redo assignments but still really never explained how to do them. So when I decided to unenroll her and put her into K12. When K12 requested my daughter's transcript from Connections Academy, Connections Academy had put that my daughter never was enrolled in their school and had no credits. MY DAUGHTER WAS ENROLLED. I have the emails and so does my daughter. Connections Academy lied on a FEDERAL DOCUMENT. My daughter had to repeat her Freshman year because of Connections Academy lies.

I DONT APPROVE OF THIS SCHOOL.

I WILL NEVER SEND ANYONE TO YOUR SCHOOL

This school is pretty good, but there are some things that could be better. I finished high school after being in this school for like 7 years. If you have trouble sleeping or getting up early, then this school is perfect for you. However, there are some issues that I want to talk about. The workload is huge, like really huge. I know someone who went to a good college and she saw the workload and was shocked. We are young people, we like to get out and enjoy our lives, you know? And not sit at home all day doing school work. When I was in public school, it was much different.

The math courses are not a good fit for the online school. It is very lousy on how they teach it. It is very vague which you have to result in watching YouTube videos or research the type of math or possibly having a tutor. Teachers can be very rude at times. When I was in this school, I have had these panic attacks or just get anxiety when it is time for CBA's. The teachers get a bit rude when you get a single question wrong but if you get others right you still get credit and pass.

Now the worst part about this school is that you can be ACCUSED of cheating when you didn't. First of all, literally 99% of the students in this school or online ones in general cheat anyway. And the teachers know it. They are just in it for the money. If a student is asking a question on a website that is on the test and gets the answer from that person on that website and gets away with it, then if you actually answer the question correctly and legitly, and the teachers find that internet question, they will give you a zero for the test. That is absolutely absurd so if one actually cheated then the other gets in trouble. But of course, there is nothing you can do about it. If you have a good argument it doesn't matter.

Online school sounds great in the mind, but in the end, is it truly better than public? The material is really well done, but the workload is too much. The math courses are not a good fit for the online school, and the teachers can be rude at times. The worst part is that you can be accused of cheating when you didn't. Overall, this school is good, but there are some things that need to be improved.

My son has been enrolled in Minnesota Connections Academy for a long time, and we were excited to transfer to Coastal Connections when we moved to Florida last month. However, we faced some difficulties during the enrollment process. Enrollment was closed for the fall, but we were told we could enroll him for the spring semester. Unfortunately, his immunization record was refused because it was not on a Florida form. It was quite surprising because Minnesota does not use Florida forms. We had to make him a pediatrician appointment to get a new physical and the immunizations transcribed to the Florida form.

Just this week, I confirmed with the enrollment department that Coastal Connections did not have a student cap, and I was fine to wait until his scheduled appointment next week. However, I was shocked to receive an email yesterday that the school had placed a cap on enrollment, and no more students could enroll for the next semester. It was quite frustrating because I had confirmed with them just a few days ago that there was no cap.

To make matters worse, I was offered an invitation to enroll my child in Pearson Academy (the private Connections program) at a generous 50% off. The 50% off value leaves me paying a tuition of $2,000 for spring semester to keep my son enrolled in a program we have attended for the past 6 years. The private school will not provide any of the IEP/IHP services my son has received from Minnesota Connections. I will now have to pay for those too.

All of this when the enrollment office confirmed with me last night that they could indeed see all of the conversations I have had with them regarding my son's transfer. And still, the answer is too bad for me. I will have to pay up to stay with the program. Let me reiterate. I was told Monday I was fine waiting to submit the last two forms until after my son's appointment with the pediatrician next week. "The school does not have a student cap." The very same week I get an email that the school has implemented a cap, and I must pay to keep my son enrolled in online classes.

They further acknowledge that they can see the documentation of this conversation, but will not honor their word. It is quite disappointing because we have always been so happy with Minnesota Connections. This has really shattered our trust in Coastal Connections. Despite all these issues, we are still hopeful that our son will receive a quality education from Connections Academy.

This is our second year with Connections Academy, and we have had mixed experiences with the Special Education teachers. Last year, my son had Mrs. Davies as his teacher, and she was fantastic! She took the time to get to know my son and made sure that all of his academic needs were met. However, this year has been a complete nightmare with Mrs. Chagnon as his teacher.

My son has an IEP, and the accommodations were not being made to his curriculum. I tried to advocate for my son, but Mrs. Chagnon refused to listen to me or put the accommodations in place. As a result, my son fell behind and became overwhelmed. I reached out to the Special Ed Director several times, and with their assistance, the accommodations were finally put into place in October.

It is frustrating that one teacher can refuse to read about the children on her caseload and not follow their IEP. It is the child's right to have the necessary accommodations in place, and it is disgraceful to set them up for failure. I have asked for Mrs. Chagnon to be removed from my son's team, but I was told no. We do not trust her and will not take the risk of her continued resistance in providing the accommodations he is entitled to.

It is unfortunate that the negligence of one teacher can deeply affect a student's academics. Therefore, we are now researching other online programs my son can transfer to, so he can complete this school year. Overall, our experience with Connections Academy has been mixed, but we hope to find a better fit for our son's needs.

I'm a parent of a 7th grader and my student has been with Connections Academy since 2014, when they were in 3rd grade. Let me tell you, the struggle is real. These poor kids are working their tails off and getting called lazy, which is beyond frustrating. My child works a lot of hours and barely has any time to relax and enjoy themselves, except for bedtime. This year has been overwhelming for them. Their grades are still good, but they have had to sacrifice so much to achieve them. They work 10-12 hours a day, 6 days a week, and even work through vacation days just to keep up.

The math curriculum this year has been crazy! The curriculum states that they should do 2 quizzes, after a couple quick checks, and then they'll have a test and sometimes 2 tests. Then, let's not forget the required imagine math work lessons that need to be completed. This is on top of all their other classes. When they get stumped, the lessons pile up and a call to the teacher never gets returned.

My child has worked so hard to get where they are. They have been an honor student for quite some time and are in the NJHS. But this workload... whew, it's too much for any child. They aren't lazy kids if they are in this school, I assure you. One lesson alone can take an hour to do if it's done thoroughly. If they have a portfolio due, well... they are screwed. This is too much. Believe the kids who are stating this school has stressed them out.

I have recruited quite a few parents that were interested and I have yet to find any out of 20 parents that found it reasonable to stick with because their lives were impacted so severely by keeping up with their children's break-downs over accomplishing and overcoming hardship. These are grade-school kids, no wonder kids don't have lives anymore, why they're so bitter and glued to technology to find solace in their world.

I also want to add that the field trips are a huge joke... they are basically like you and your kid going on a scheduled trip alone. There is no socialization or togetherness. Kids scatter close to their parents and barely talk to each other. If you go on a field trip, be assured that you will be behind in your day lessons. So, why bother having a day of fun when you risk the lessons getting behind?

Really, Connections Academy, do something about this huge overload. Just because kids are getting older doesn't mean that you have to treat them like robots.

Me and my son decided to give Connections Academy a try because he really wanted to be homeschooled. I admit that I didn't do enough research before enrolling him, but I'm not really liking it so far. It feels like there's just too much school work to do. They encourage you to give the kids little breaks in between, but when I do that, the lessons end up being super long. They even added an extra credited class that I feel should be an elective, but instead it's a required class.

My poor kid is already doing his basics of Math, Science, English, History, and P.E. But no, that's not nearly enough. They decided to throw in a formal ART class as a required class. I'm not talking about a few little art pieces here and there, but an actual Art class that you would take in HIGH SCHOOL. This means learning about the history of art and having to make art pieces, along with submitting book reports on the history of art. I feel this is very excessive for a 5th grader, but it doesn't stop there. They're also requiring the kids to learn computer science on top of everything else. My son is feeling overwhelmed with how much he has to do.

Even as a parent, I feel overwhelmed trying to keep up, and I'm a single mom. So yeah, it's going to be difficult for me to keep up anyway, but the type of jobs I have make it easier for me to work with him. I've asked the teacher for more help with my son as he's struggling with math. Don't get me wrong, his teacher is doing a lot and has been helpful, but I feel that if they know the students are going to struggle with a new subject like decimals, they should have more live lessons to break it down for the kids. But they expect the parents to teach all of that. I expressed that I need extra help in teaching this to my son as I have learning disabilities in math. I'm having my son be helped by family and friends as well as Connections Academy. The teacher reassured me that I'm doing everything I'm supposed to, but yet my son is still struggling.

Well, he did a live lesson with my son and the other students, and then he admits that a lot of the students are struggling to understand decimals. Why are they throwing out homework without explaining it first? I think it would be far more effective if they had the teacher live breaking down and explaining decimals, and then have parents and kids working together on decimals. Then they could touch base with the students and see where they're at. Overall, I'm not really impressed with Connections Academy so far.

I decided to enroll my daughter in Connections Academy because she was experiencing social anxiety and stress in public school. However, after completing the first semester, my daughter started to feel anxious about the school and didn't like it. I checked her work and found that her essays were complex and professional, and she wasn't copying anyone's work. She's smart for her age, but she was getting anxiety from being in public school, so we thought Connections Academy would be a good alternative.

Unfortunately, my daughter started to feel stressed and cry knowing she had to go back to doing her work like a slave. She hates it, and we thought it would be better since she's really eager to start college even at her 10th-grade level. I know my child is intelligent, and I know a whole bunch of parents who sign their kids up know the same thing. But it hurt me seeing her breaking into tears and having anxiety attacks. She's smart, and I hate seeing her feel like she's anything less.

The live lessons don't seem as helpful, and they seem like a waste of time. We are enrolled in Connections Academy California, and we aren't happy. After a while, my daughter started to lose it, and she would get stressed and cry knowing she had to go back to doing her work like a slave. She hates it.

There are students who don't want to talk to people and would rather do their work and know they are keeping good grades, but they're still required to talk to someone. It didn't work for my daughter. She would get anxiety from even seeing phone calls, and she didn't want to talk to any teachers. She understands that they're her teachers, but she doesn't want to talk to them because it stresses her out.

She had talked to one of her teachers before, but she started to get anxiety after the first time she talked. She was hounded with questions on a whole bunch of things, and students aren't supposed to remember every little word and detail as long as they understand the material. She was crying after that phone call because she felt humiliated and felt like she was being seen as an idiot because of certain things.

So, sorry Connections Academy, you made my child feel worse. If you're considering enrolling your child in Connections Academy, I would suggest thinking twice. While the curriculum may be good, it's not worth the stress and anxiety that it can cause. My daughter is happier now that she's back in public school, and she's made friends who love and miss her. They know the horrible way she feels, and they want her to go back for her own good.

If you're a parent with a busy schedule or a child who struggles with attention, you might want to think twice before enrolling in Connections Academy. I attend Indiana Connections, and it's been a nightmare. My parents thought it would be better for me, but it's not. The kids in the electives are passionate, which is usually a good thing, but if you're different from them, they'll likely cast you out. It happened to me in my game class when the teacher asked about social media. Everyone said no, but I said yes. They claimed it was "more trouble than it's worth and full of stupid drama." Some of that may be true, but not always. None of them reply to anything I talk about anymore.

I feel stressed out all the time. Lessons only get one day for completion, and it's hard to get them done. Some people might say it's good that they're pushing me, but it's not. It makes me irritable and mean. When I was in public school, I was happier and friendlier. Now, when my parents ask me to do something, I wish they'd leave me alone because I have too much work to do.

Not to mention, they expect parents to be learning coaches and be involved 24/7. Attendance has to be recorded every day, and your child is expected to spend a regular school day's amount of time on the site. But in reality, most lessons take much more than an hour to do if you want to do them the "right way."

There's little to no communication with other students outside of live lessons. Even at public places, they only talk to those who talk to them first. I understand they might have anxiety, but even the ones who don't blatantly have it don't talk to anyone.

The lessons are overly hard, too long, and the time limits on tests make me jittery. I can't remember what the answer is, so I resort to cheating sometimes because I can't look at the book and find time to get the answer right.

In conclusion, if you don't have time to watch your kid, don't want to see them stressed out and depressed worse than they were before, don't want them to fail because they can't keep up, or any of the other things mentioned, please do your kid a favor and leave homeschooling to superheroes.

My son went to Connections Academy in Colorado for almost two years. He was in 10th grade last year and the first semester of this year for 11th grade before he was withdrawn by the school. His first year doing online schooling wasn't too bad. It took him a little while to adjust to the change, and the only issue we had at the beginning of the year was his assignments not going through when he was completing them. That happened only for the first month, but his homeroom teacher was helpful, and once we communicated the problem to her, it was fixed, and we didn't have any more issues after that. What she did, I don't know.

This year was a completely different story. My son would do the assignments, and it would show complete on his end, but nothing was coming through on my end to mark as "complete." So lessons started to pile up and become overdue, which would then put him in alarm status because it looked like he wasn't doing his work. I watched him complete a couple of assignments, and sure enough, it showed submitted on his end, but nothing was popping up on my end to mark as complete. I watched him do one assignment three times before it finally went through and allowed me to mark it complete.

We tried to communicate this issue with his homeroom teacher, tech support, and the assistant principal, but zero help. Of course, the school accused him of not doing his work, skipping lessons, and so forth. I received a VM from the assistant principal, called him back, and had to leave him a VM, no response back. Lessons with attachments he would submit, and the documents would come up blank. He had to submit a couple of documents to me a number of times before the document would finally come through.

First semester this year was a nightmare for my son because he had to do double work to get everything through so that he could pass! Meaning he was having to do the same assignments over again. Which he did, over winter break, and passed all of his finals. Now, if he really wasn't doing the work or putting an effort towards his assignments, do you really think he would have passed his finals? Probably NOT.

Teachers do not respond to webmails in a timely manner, no communication whatsoever, and no faith in students. All my son got was, "you're just not doing your work" when he would try to explain what was going on. He sent screenshots to prove he was doing the work, no response. What else can he do?! So now they have withdrawn him, and now I am having to scramble and try to find another school so he doesn't fall behind.

With this experience, my son wants to go back to a traditional school for his last year of HS. We tried the online thing because the schools in our area are crappy. Thanks for the horrible experience Connections, appreciate it!

My kid is in 9th grade at Connections Academy and I want to share my thoughts about this school. To be honest, I'm not sure if it's good or not. My child used to go to public school until 3rd grade, but I decided to homeschool her because of her attention and anxiety issues. She was doing well grade-wise, but we were both unsure about what to do for high school. That's when we saw Connections Academy advertised and decided to give it a try.

Now, let me tell you about our experience. Connections Academy is interesting, but it's not what we expected. Instead of being educated, my daughter spends most of her time in front of the computer. The scheduling is set up in a way that she could easily spend 8 hours a day just taking tests and quizzes. Her Biology class is outdated and consists of just tests and videos. Algebra and English are just quizzes and tests. Spanish is the worst, with a terrible curriculum and no book to follow. History class is dry and the tests are timed and cover enormous amounts of chapters. Even Physical Education is done sitting at a computer, which doesn't make sense to me.

In short, Connections Academy is not a place for education. My daughter is left to self-teach herself everything and find classes online to patch up the holes in the curriculum. It's merely a place to pass tests and learn how to sit at a computer all day.

What Connections advertises is not what you get. There's no communication between students and teachers, unless you email them, but it's still difficult to communicate. If you want a public education for your children, I recommend sending them to school where they can have face-to-face interaction with teachers and peers. The clubs are also a disappointment, as they're run so poorly that you have to see it to believe it.

I'm not giving Connections Academy a bad review because my daughter is doing poorly there. She's in a mixture of honors and regular classes and has all A's. I'm giving my review because I wish I had read a fair review before signing up for this school.

Yes, Connections Academy is free, but you get what you pay for. I'm going to withdraw my daughter after the semester ends because she's starting to hate school, which was never my intention when I enrolled her at Connections. It's a sad situation.

I've been attending Connections Academy for about three-quarters of the first semester, and let me tell you, it's been a rough ride. The school claims that you can work at your own pace, but that's a complete lie. Every day, there are around six to seven lessons to complete, and if you fall behind, you'll have a mountain of work to catch up on. I'm currently 18 lessons overdue, and I had to use my entire three-day Thanksgiving break to try and catch up. It's been a nightmare.

To make matters worse, I have ADHD, which makes it difficult for me to focus. My math teacher, who I won't name, insists that we work in MATHIA, but it's been completely useless for me. The principal even said that the program will be trashed at the end of the semester, but my teacher still insists that it's important. It's frustrating because I'm struggling to keep up with the workload, and the program isn't helping at all.

The stress of the workload has also caused me to lose touch with my friends. I simply don't have the time to hang out with them anymore. Some of my teachers are good, but others are terrible. I get bombarded with emails every week about temporary 0's, and it's always the same message, even from different teachers.

My homeroom teacher, who teaches English and Social Studies, is helpful, but my art teacher, who I'll call Miss 2, is the worst. I have three overdue lessons in art, and she's failed me with an F and 22% because of it. She even sent me an email titled "Academic Intervention," claiming that she called me, but she didn't. She called a random number that the school had on file, and now some stranger knows my name. It's ridiculous.

I'm currently 25 lessons overdue, and I have to work through my Christmas break as well. I'm failing three classes and have 32 overdue lessons. If I stay at Connections Academy through high school, I won't have a chance of getting into a good college. It's been the biggest mistake of my life, and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. Look into a good public school or try K12 instead. I'm hoping to switch to K12 for the next semester and get away from Connections Academy.

I would like to know why in the art/music/technology subjects the curriculum uses she and her when the refer to a student. My grandson would also like to know why his teachers always call him a her or a she in emails and texts having seen him in live lesson and knowing perfectly well that he is unmistakably a boy. This slight mishap is a way to push an agenda that I was assured was not being practiced in the online charter school. I'm all about inclusivity but not by excluding another group. It is not hard to say he/she, his/her, they/ them is they want to go the cheaper, time saving route. Crt and sel are 2 big reasons I keep him out of public schooling and this "school" falsely advertised their separation from this nonsense.

I highly recommend avoiding this school at all costs.
And it's clear I would never recommend you to involve your children in this mess.
I don't know who these programs were made for, but it's not for average and ordinary people, for superheroes, probably, who have 37 hours around the clock instead of 24.
You'll be thrown into a lot of work and you will dig into it without having enough time to make everything right. Think twice whether you want to spend your time and money on this.

I have doubt and lots of questions regarding teachers' qualifications and professionalism. I think they don't reach the highest level to be called the best ones.
I'm myself a top-rank teacher and know what standards exist.
I just wonder what the teachers really do if most of the lessons are held online? How they help our children to understand if they don't get something?
After each lesson, I have to explain and answer all of my son's questions, because he's interested. I have nothing against it, it's great, but I pay to your teachers as well, I want them to participate as well and to do their job properly.

Thank you.

Sarah Willson

I saw a lot of good reviews about ConnectionsAcademy and I'm actually shocked that they exist! My sister is using this ConnectionsAcademy service and she hates it a lot. She said that teachers are not so polite to students and that lessons are really boring and she doesn't get that much of a new information.
I bet all the positive reviews are fake, there is absolutely nothing positive in ConnectionsAcademy!

Don’t use the website www.connectionsacademy.com. My friend’s son couldn’t graduate from this school, ’coz they provided bad ad and their virtual school turned out to be real scam. Waste of money and time. Now this boy will start the simply school. They didn’t provide a lot of new, and they didn’t teach people. So please, be careful if you choose the, and share your comments about it.

I'm in Connections Academy and I am now getting failing grades in classes I was passing (or would have been passing) in public school. They give false advertising by saying a child can go at their own pace, when in all honesty, they cannot. I'm a slower worker, but I turn in A work because I make sure I understand what I'm doing instead of just speeding though it. My teachers didn't care about that. When my homeroom teacher would contact me, she would push lower classes because of a lighter workload, but without the things to challenge me. There is also no personalized curriculum, as advertised. LiveLessons also just seem to be a waste of time.

My child can not graduate this year due to Connection Academies lack of communication and misrepresentation.Most of the teachers sit at home doing other things like watch TV rather then answer their phone and BE A TEACHER! Their solution is pull your child out, they blame the child by saying "must not be a good fit" they REFUSE to take responsibility as educators! Do not be fooled by their lies!They costed my child and many others the graduation day these students worked so hard to achieve.When is America going to stand up for the future of our children? My child had dreams but this school taught him how to fail and that he should drop out and give up! You people should be ashamed of yourselves for calling yourselves "Educators".