Connections Academy

I have become very mixed feelings because I had two kids enrolled here for the first time. We have had such a hard time this year. We can never stay caught up always behind. I will say some of teachers were very caring an tried to help but still doesnt help with the situation. There arose a issue with my youngest my 7th grader an tried to explain an correct the issue but instead the assistant principal decides to unenroll my child. Now here we are at the last part of the year trying to figure out what to do! No explantion except good luck such crap. Still having one child in 8th grade trying to finish. Also both kids have disabilites so now more anxiety, an triggers to Ptsd, adhd, among others. Thanks Connections Academy for a horrible year. Plus though on the few school "field trip selections" except for the added work load.

My daughter has never loved school, but 8th grade Connections has been a new level of hate. NOTHING let me repeat, NOTHING is done by the staff with the thought of "kids should go at their own pace" or "every kid is different, and has to have a variety of options to fit their needs" in mind. Due to past schools, my daughter has had an absolutely awful experience with teachers, so it doesn't help that your child will have to talk with them EXTREMELY often no matter how they are doing. Calling people over phone is one of my daughter's fears, and it's obvious that no staff member gives a flying f*ck about it. My 8th grade daughter is doing school work that I would have been doing in late high school, and although that may be because of change over the years, they should be able to teach it better. You may be thinking "What if your child is just dumb?" And I dont blame you, but mind that 3 of her friends have also recently started connections, and there parents have also said it has been a terrible experience with just about everything.

My apologies for the long paragraph or any grammar issues

We have just withdrawned our son who was in 7th grade. This is our first time homeschooling our son. The lessons are insane. He spent 10-16 hours a day. 8 subjects, 6 classes per day. The writing and reading are beyond 7th grade. We have never behind the homework, but you have to sit and be with your kid the while time. The rubric is so hard. Each big project is given only 2 days to do. We started to hate it since first month. When he was in 1-6 grade, he hardly had any homeworks. I am not a big fan on homeworks... Do you like to bring report and office work to do at home every night? No... The test is crazy. Every single day, every subject. Some teachers are so unhelpful, some are very nice. I don't like the part that kid already had 6 classes per day and 3-4 LIVE online class that are mandatory and you tell me, how the kid can spend only 6 hours a day? It is impossible!

When we emailed and decided to withdraw our son, the principle said, "we are not a homeschool program, we are an accredited high school." So why you advertise as a free homeschool program then.

We hate this online school so much.

A school is supposed to care for your children. This school does not. Your child is literally a number and they do not care about their success. The school principal for Southern California is *. They dropped my son at the end of the year with a month left for school and did not contact us except by mail. The teachers where willing to re-instate my son but she refused. She was rude and lied, saying she had contacted us numerous times. They have several teachers for each student who call for meetings. They only requested for a meeting with my son. They had locked his account months ago and he could not get on line. When he would try to call, no one was available and they would call back at times when he could not answer the phone. They will all try to make you go in a circle and say they all tried to call, but they never give you the proper information until it's too late and you have failed to meet their deadline. This principal should be fired. You do not want to deal with this school if she is employed here.

*Personal information redacted by admin

As a public educator in a brick and mortar school, I was hesitate to look for online virtual schooling for my 8th grader. I cried, prayed and ask God to send me a sign the school we choose as a family would give us what we needed for our daughter. After 4 months of searching, we decided SCCA was a good fit for our child. The requirement these teachers are required to hold are the exact requirements I hold in the brick and mortar schools of SC.
These teachers really care about our students, the extra time and input they give these students is way more than what I can give as an educator. They weekly lives, then they give extra help and even met with your student one on one! I applaud SCCA and it's educators for a job well done. Having a class of 25-28 kids in my room everyday 6 times a day, I honestly struggle having time to grade everything and meet one on one with my students unless it is on my time and no pay. Then to add to the fire, I have other duties and the stress is a lot. But these teachers begin each day refreshed and eager to reach my child. Thank you SCCA for everything you do for our students who have chosen to do virtual public school. Thank you for looking out for my child. A child that was bullied and overseen because she portrayed to have it together, when actually she was fallen apart.

This is the 3rd year that my daughter has attended CA. Her brick and mortar school only had a gifted class for her once a week and the rest of the week, she was completely bored. The teachers would have her tutor other students instead of challenging her. We had no other option but to grade skip and that would have put my tiny 9 year old in a middle school which I did not want. That wouldn't have been good socially for her. Now, she can work in gifted courses that challenge her and keep her interest. This was the perfect solution for her. She has never been this happy in school and says that she will never go back to brick and mortar public schools. It works for us and I don't understand all these negative reviews. My daughter works 5 hours a day on schoolwork and seems to keep up and get it all finished. However, she is a self motivated student and will just sit down and do the work that is required so that she may have the rest of the day for herself. If she has something to go to or plans with a friend, she will work ahead on schoolwork so that she can take a day off to spend with friends. So happy to have this for her and I wish they'd have had this when I was younger.

I submitted required documents associated with registration process Dec 2023. I was told to submit attendance report and most recent report card on 01/04/2024.I followed all required steps submitted the last 2 documents. All documents had been reviewed and verified. Kept calling for updates response was same by every agent I spoke to which was everything had been verified and received and I needed to allow time for placement to be done. I was instructed to allow email for further instructions.NEVER received any emails so I kept calling...kept being told to wait for placement to place son in classes.After waiting for so long I was devastated to be told that I had missed registration and I would have to wait until next semester.This isnt good customer service. Was made aware the error was on enrollment end and no error of my own. I placed several complaints was told I would get a update never got any updates so had to keep calling. At this point nothing has been done.Registration for low country academy failed my child. I fought so hard to get him enrolled and stayed on top of getting all required documents in. All documents were in on time there is no reason my son shouldn't have been enrolled.I AM DISGUSTED AND I AM HURT...

I had enrolled in our child in June and was told to not worry about the lengthy time to process the enrollment as the California schools would not start until September. Calling just about every week to learn of the status, I had been told over and over to not worry and that they currently don't have a cap on student enrollment. Waiting for tall the documents took forever, as they informed me that they had an influx of new enrollments but did not have a lot of staff at the time. Here is an idea, HIRE MORE! None the less, the school year started is fast approaching, still no word from them, in August, TWO months after the start of my enrollment process, I get an email that we will have to be put on a waitlist, What the heck?! They said that they reach capacity and now we are put on a waitlist. There is little communication, even when you have the chance to get in, and then they tell you that everything will be okay and then slam you with the fact that you have to now wait. As a result, I had to enroll him in another online school.

My daughter, Bree and I just started Iowa Connections Academy in January 2023. Bree was at her whits end and didn't want to continue her education. She has extreme social anxiety, plus the beginning of her freshman year was devastating for Bree, her school desks were too small, kids were whispering and made rude commits to her. Everyday was a challenge, she didn't want to go to school because of the embarrassment. It took the school over 2 months to comply to Bree's needs and by that time, she had no self-esteem.
Since starting Iowa Connections Academy, she has done a 180'. Bree has lost 85 Lbs. She in now comfortable with her surrounding. She has never set goals in school until we started here. She has got A's and B's now. She set her goal to get nothing below a C+, then once she accomplished that goal, she set another one wanting to get B's or higher grade. And she has done that as well.
This was a hard decision to make, as I am a single parent. I have also made a free changes in myself and accomplished a free goals of mine as well. LET ME SAY: MY goal was getting Bree an education, with teachers that took priority in the students. And that is one goal I've got accomplished. I'm proud of you Bree. Keep on Rockin!

The incompetency of the enrollment department and those they work with is mind blowing. After going through the whole process and uploading all needed documents they continually messed up my son's immunization approval. After not one mess up and wrong information but FOUR and me resubmitting numerous ways and them admitting they had messed up multiple times and was continually told the wrong thing, I was then told it was past the deadline for enrollment... even though they had had all the needed documents in plenty of time and the errors were on their side. They put in for an exception to the principal, I was told I would get a phone call. No call and the exception was denied without review. When I tried to talk directly to the principal (the only one with authority to make the change) I was told she would be traveling for a week and I may or may not get a call in that time and no guarantee this would be fixed. By this time my son had not been in school for a week, they expected me to wait another for no guarantees and their incompetency caused my son to miss all deadlines to enroll at a different online school. I had to put him back into the local high school. Working with them is an absolute nightmare and you will get a different answer every time you call and if they mess up. They will not take responsibility. GO ELSEWHERE!

This school called me the day before graduation to let me know my son was not eligible, I asked why I wasn't notified sooner and was told they didn't know until 4 days ago, and did not have the staff to notify us sooner. They told us on that same phone call that my son is not eligible because he is short. 5 an election credit and because of this he is not eligible to attend the graduation ceremony. We verified several times with his counselor and homeroom teacher that he was signed up for the right classes to complete school on time. This may be a free program, but what is the sense of all this when you hold the children back from their end goal. I'm not sure if it is so they will have enough students to complete their summer program, or because they did not have the sense to get a large enough venue for the entire graduating class. This staff member also told me there were 243 students in the graduating class, and they booked a venue that only seats 500 for the venue. It doesn't take a diploma to do that math.

I must say as a parent your child's future when it comes to education is very important. My daughter early years in elementary wasn't so great. From around 3rd grade she would always say she was distracted by the other peers in her class. The grades she received were average B/C and every now and again a D/F.
Once the pandemic hit and children were forced to learn at home in 2020 I saw a complete difference in my daughters grades, straight A's! This was shocking to me because although she was telling me she was distracted at school since 3rd grade I was afraid homeschooling would take away from the social skills you get from being around other peers her age. The school she attended during the first half of the pandemic suddenly had to close. I did some research and found TNCA and I love the flexibility along with the curriculum so it was a win for me.
The first couple weeks was a lot for myself as a learning coach to adjust to but with all the classes, zoom meetings and Learning Coach Central it's now a breeze. As for my daughter you guest it she's still a straight A scholar excelling. Although I was worried about the social skills there are many clubs to join. This also has allow time for her to take up outside extra curriculum activities such as acting classes. She loves it at TNCA and so do I. Therefore making this school a win in both of our book!

When my wife and I first discovered Connexus Academy we were lured in by the promise that it was a work at your own pace school. Signing up for the school was difficult because they kept misplacing information that we sent them. I had to upload/mail them my proof of address multiple times before they accepted it. By the time they did accept it my daughter had missed the first semester of school. So she started off behind and never caught up. She's about to fail the first grade even though the grades in her grade book are excellent. So why is she failing? Because of the insane amount of portfolios that this school has my child doing. My daughter doesn't like school anymore. This school took the fun out of learning for my child and when I saw her crying because she didn't want to attend school one day it was my breaking point. Some times we're in front of the computer for 10 hours a day trying to complete every assignment so we don't fall behind.

This is not a work at your own pace school. If you miss one day of school because you're sick or for a family emergency (my brother almost lost his life from diabetes that he did not know he had so I couldn't log my daughter in for a few days because I was out of town.) you'll fall behind and be 8-10 assignments behind. The workload is too much for a 7 year old to handle and I would rather pay out of pocket to send her to a private school before I attempt this one again. My child has never struggled academically before this. Think long and hard before you decide to send your child to Connexus Academy.

Thanks for reading.

1) Kindergarden kid- he was around charter since 3/ pre school and half of kindergarden. We adopted him and notice alot public school was not for King. Pain was all he experienced- love is what we wanted! Yes we told the ad/ teacher/ principal/ and even asked for a meeting with the other kids parents!
2) Our decision to look into home school- Florida Connection was suggested by a teacher- and I knew zero
3) I was hand held question why I think this is what King needed/ the representative cared! Listened/ and walked me thru the full process and again I knew zero!
4) King was accepted/ stress level went down, we were able to seek doctor care, our time no threats of jail, time for Dr care! We were able to breathe yes both of us. We sat and make a plan! To build an office for King. He was accepted- again we knew zero but at this point we were willing to try!
5) We meet his teacher by zoom, she has suggestion, for solving problems. She answers all our questions. Helps with the computer program, delightful. Cute, and loving. And yes we get stressed because nothing in life is essy- but Ms. Lee is calm again suggestion options!
6) The IT team is just plain AWESOME- WE call them our super hero.

Again we know zero but we are on our way to being # 1! Still trying, THE LAWS FAMILY FOR KING WILLIAMS-LAWS