Connections Academy

Our experience with Lowcountry Connections Academy has been fantastic. I have a graduating senior with a learning disability. She is highly functioning and very disciplined, so CA has been an extraordinary experience for her. She has thrived being in a comfortable environment without distractions. My daughter and I also have a small business and she is also a social media influencer. Being enrolled at CA has given her the flexibility she needs to run her businesses and get her school work done in a timely manner. When she graduates in June she will be ahead of the game because of the experience she has had with her small business and social media influencing business.
My son is in 7th grade and he is also doing very well. He is in gifted and talented classes, so he is also quite disciplined when it comes to school work. I do not have experience with having young children in CA, but I can only assume it is a much different experience. Both of my children take responsibility for their school work and need very little assistance. I am looking forward to some social activities. Ie: field trips or school gatherings next year since we are moving away from covid restrictions. I think the social aspect is really the only part that I have a concern with going forward for my son. I do feel like our public schools have gotten much more violent in recent months, so I like having the security of having him be virtual. Thank you CA for giving us the option to choose what is best for our students.

I don't recommend Tennessee Connections Academy to any parents because they nothing but lies and I have proof of everything they did to my son. They withdraw him on July 27,2021 without my consent but I spoken to Carolina Narino on July 8,2021 telling me that she received confirmation that my son was ready to start on Aug 4,2021 but still that was all lies. The sad part they sent him his laptop and handphones for what? So now my son is in emotional distress over A school is A liar and nobody not even the Principal can't tell me who approved my son paperwork over him? I just think it's A racist thing because he is Black because the Principal stated my son was off track that's why they withdraw him but Carolina told me because of his age lol bs! The rep name Mark told me that everything was going to be straightened out lol again all lies and scam... The verification department will loose your paperwork and lie and tell you that they never received it but that's all lies also... This is not the end! You Been Warn They play with my son's IEP paperwork and etc...

I currently have a 6 yr old in first grade with special needs and the services this school offers is amazing. She has speech delayment and anxiety with borderline autism. This school has helped me so much with teaching me on how to help her. We started her in public preschool and they told us to delay her a year before we started her in kindergarten and I didnt accept that so I decided to look for alternative schools for her to go to. I found connections academy and from the start they were so helpful answering questions and pointing me into the right directions follow. I love the fact that they encourage parent involvement and give you ideas on what to do when something isnt working. They do not emphasis or single her out for her disability they teach her how to work with her disabilities as part of her and how to overcome them. If there is something she is struggling with we can take more time to get it and not have to rush onto the next thing. The services they offer is amazing like speech and occupational and therapy to help teach them things that they are struggling with. Such as emotional skills or social interactions. I recommend this school to alot of people with special needs parents that are struggling in regular public schools that there children are not getting the help that they need or desire.

My son graduated from Connections in 2022. He started there in 6th grade. They are an amazing school and I highly recommend them.

We enrolled our daughter half-way through her junior year because she was dealing with a lot of social anxiety at school. We thought the flexibility of Oregon Connections Academy would be beneficial for her and would allow her to work at her own pace and have some additional free time to work or volunteer. Unfortunately, our expectations were not reality. After six months, our A & B student is now receiving poor grades. She has lost motivation and doesn't really seem to care. At this point, she does the least amount required, which is essentially a lot of busy work and multiple-choice questions. Also, this is a very challenging format in which to teach or learn math. Our daughter has always done quite well in her math classes, yet she's currently failing her CA math class. My brother, who has a degree in computer science and math, attempted to assist her with her math assignments, but it didn't seem to help because she was already so far behind.

I believe the teachers are intelligent and well-intentioned; however, they are limited by the horrible interface and limitations of the online learning platform. My biggest complaint is their confusing system. I struggle to figure out what is due and when, and how she is supposed to complete her assignments. I have a graduate degree, yet it makes little sense to me. I can fully see why my daughter is struggling with this, as well. We are disappointed with her experience at Oregon Connections Academy and will be re-enrolling her at her local high school for her senior year.

On a side note, I did not find out Connection Academy is owned by Pearson Education (publishing company) until after we enrolled our daughter. All CA textbooks are from Pearson, and I recently read they've seen continued increases in revenue from these "public" schools. So, Connections Academy is essentially the K-12 equivalent of the troubled for-profit colleges.

My 10 year old daughter loves this school. She has great teachers. This is the best decision that I have made.

I appreciate all the time the teachers put into my son's education. Quickly answering questions and always eager to help.

I applied for my two kiddos (3rd and 4th grade). It took almost 3 weeks. They ignored my daughters assessment that she was nonverbal and expected her to do a verbal reading lesson with the teacher. They expected her to read LA at a 4th grade level even though her assessment was clear that she has a learning disability and reads at a lower level. It is clear that no one read the assessments or IEP. Doing what they were asking would have caused a learning regression for my daughter but they didn't care or make any modifications. They also wanted me to sign something that indicated they could do hold back if their teachers recommended it. Don't the parents get a say? I'm disappointed because I wanted the program to work for us but the communication is so poor. It isn't hard to create your own curriculum to homeschool your kiddos yourself so that is what I have done. I'm also not driving two hours two different days for STAAR, thats craziness. If you even consider opt out they will drop you where at a regular PS you can opt. I'm sure the program is great for someone out there but for kiddos with special learning needs or accommodations they for mine didn't even take a minute to read the reports I sent in. If their this poor in the beginning it's likely there will be continued troubles. I tried to enroll my kiddos after the first day. It was explained to me a week after classes started that my kids would be expected to do all the work from the first day. By the time they found my kids lost assessments and enrolled them they would have been almost 2 weeks behind in work... terrible.

I enrolled my son back in 2019-2020 for online kindergarten and the whole enrollment process was a nightmare. After multiple phone calls, paperwork not uploading properly and absolutely no clear answers as to what documents were needed from me, I held off for a year. I then tried applying again for the 2020-2021 school year for kindergarten and it was again, a nightmare. I was asked to provide my marriage certificate for verification purposes that I have a name change. Why? My child's birth certificate and drivers license as well as my electricity bill should have been enough evidence… once I got my son enrolled the whole class sessions were exhausting. We had to meet the teacher 3x a week for an hour each time. The classes loaded slow, it was difficult to understand the teacher almost the entire time, and the support is minimal at best. Whenever my son would become easily distracted the teacher was clearly annoyed and bothered at the sole fact that my son simply just couldn't sit for an hour straight. Then, during his assessments the teacher would have to consistently ask my son to focus. I don't blame him, he has adhd and autism. At the time it was undiagnosed. There is an overwhelming amount of work to do, the materials feel outdated and boring. It feels like college courses but for a kindergartener. I decided to go with K12 and I am happy I chose a different route.

Due to Covid & how our public school was handling things, we decided to switch our daughter (currently a 2nd grader) to FCA. I have seen mixed reviews but from our experience it was such a breath of fresh air compared to what her public school was offering. FCA does require you to be hands on, especially at her grade, but her teachers, especially her homeroom, were so helpful and friendly, always available to answer any questions. It allowed us to be more flexible with how we did school & it allowed her to progress at her own pace. The main cons I would say were 1) the intro on how to properly use the platform & make the most out of the school could have been way better & more hands on & 2) the obvious lack of classmates but there are plenty of parents who want to meet, you just have to find them. I could go more into detail but if you have any questions I wouldn't mind helping. My email is *******@gmail.com. Overall, I am extremely happy with our decision to switch. The curriculum is great and her teachers, especially Mrs. McGuigan, were amazing!

My child has adjusted well to home schooling, very into classes well rounded with school work and enjoying the things she likes to do.

Please don't put your twin's in this junk they hate kids and treat parents very bad they say next school your kids will be doing live lesson via website cam invasion of privacy if u ask me that's why I will not return there next year my kids will be doing K-12 we are leave after 2years of pure hell as specially this year was one of the worst school year for my twins these teacher will mess with your children's self confidence and self motivation I feel there job is to only tear them down when they should be lifting them up my kids the teachers they are the ones that are dumb they love giving our kids zero's for all the hard work our kids do its never enough we as learning coach's aka are the real teacher that make sure our kids are learning if u are looking for teacher support u will never get it here there's have a lot miscommunication there a lot of teachers who have very bad attitudes and can be rude at other time your kids will be treated like a college students this school will and can take over your whole life Curriculum is often too difficult often poorly presented so students can't comprehend.

The enrollment process was by far the worst experience. We had numerous issues with them rejecting items and it took weeks to get approvals. The schooling situation is by far even more hellish. The teachers do not exist. Please understand this, the parent is the teacher! Teachers are always out of office and even when they are in office they do not respond, are vague, and literally do not teach. The live lessons teach nothing about the course work and the school loads up the kids with millions of activities that the teachers fail to grade for weeks on end. My A/B honor roll students are struggling to stay above an F and they are working non-stop. If you child is capable of googling, searching and watching youtube videos of actual teachers teaching the sections on their own, they may have a chance. In addition, the school forgot to enroll my kids in all needed coursework. When we pointed this out, they bombarded my kids with full time weekend work to get them not only caught up but way ahead of the schedule. We had teachers literally emailing us asking why we had our kids doing weekend work and scheduled to finish the semester weeks in advance. I really don't even know how this is considered a school? Please look into other platforms for your child. Check with your state and stay away from Connections. If you are in OK, use EPIC or some other true "flexible" teaching environment. Sadly, my kids are starting a new online school only after two months of this hell. Those reviews that state you must work and not be lazy to succeed are lying. Lazy has nothing to do with it, the entire set up is a failure and your children are teaching themselves via google, youtube, and "sections" of online books provided. I will make sure every parent that considers this school understands that it should be shut down.