I never write reviews, but I need to after reading other people's comments. I enrolled my teen in this school about a year ago; while it is self-directed, they offer online sessions almost daily, and assignments are explained during those sessions. Students get a calendar with the available sessions. I have never had an issue contacting any of the teachers. Their response rate is 24-48 hours. The homeroom teacher calls the students weekly and is very motivating and encouraging. The students must work daily as if they were in an in-person school. Attendance needs to be done by the coach, who is one of the child's parents/guardians. It is not for everyone, but if you have a student/child who is self-directed and has self-control, they can do well in the program. I hope this review helps parents who are looking for options. read more

This school is a joke! I enrolled my kids in this school, mind you they had told me that there were very many spots open, submitted EVERYTHING they needed as far as paperwork and was then told that one of my kids was enrolled but the other was put on a wait list. So now my kids have missed alot of school because of their incompetence, sub par customer service, and ridiculous policies. This school is not worth the hassle! read more

I was gonna sign up my daughter for home school online but after looking and everything at the end they wanted my social security that's where I thought was fishy! So I decided not to enroll her in this online course. read more

This is the best school I have ever attended and I have in fact attended a lot of different schools. I very much recommend attending this beautiful chapel of happiness bc I attend and I have never attended anything better. Attend this school if u want to be happy and escape and experience a full blown education without the complications of cruel children getting in the way. Teachers r fabulous and I'm finally succeeding at life. Probsbly would have failed sxjool if it weren't for this. Xoxo gossip girl read more

The worst school ever don't bother wasting your time you might as well get paid for being a school employee based off all the work you need to do from the school. I've done other online schools and never had issues don't like the ones I am happy it is extremely frustrating and working long hours Just doing the learning planner is extremely difficult how is my third grader going to use it if I can't even figure out how to use it myself. The teachers at my son's third grade school were rude unprofessional and we're calling to complain to the principal and connections academy No one seemed to care even after I threatened I would have my student removed they could care less. Just having the them removed was another process, they want to charge you for records transcripts when that is against the law those are my kids records and should be available to any parent upon requesting they make it extremely hard to get those records emailing me telling me that to go on their website when I go on the website they continue to charge me. read more

Nothing happens after I submitted my all information! It's look like not accurate websites!

The teacher at this school are competent and good and a few are outstanding. However, if you ever want a transcript from this school, you are out of luck. They have outsourced the transcripts to Parchment.com, which has a totally dysfunctional website. Then try getting back to Connections Academy and, again, total indifference and incompetence. Good teachers and a horrible corporate overlords. The school will not answer the phone and other offices can only respond to inquiries by advising "contact the local school." Total incompetence and customer indifference. Avoid the pain, go elsewhere. read more

Good curriculum is only strong point. However, most all teachers are young, new, very inexperienced, and not very knowledgeable about how to teach--especially math and science. Special education is a joke and the school is in trouble for not following proper procedures to support students. Special education teachers are very poorly trained and leadership does not know what to do. Any student can qualify for a 504 plan since there is no real formal process for proper evaluation if needed. The school administration are cast offs from other low performing charter schools and only follow what Pearson senior management (the for-profit management company owner of the school) tells them what to do for the school. Principals request the teachers to change grades if they get a complaint--totally against state law. Also, found out the highest priority for the school is marketing and to enroll new students to make more money for Pearson. This school should close down since there is a new state law that forbids for profit control and management of charter schools. Taxpayer education money should not go to profits for companies. read more

Recommend for motivated, forward thinking parents. A highly organized time flexible, easy to follow education model, with quality teachers and support staff. read more

I don't know why everyone says that the teachers don't answer their phone. I am currently a sophomore here and have been attending this school since 8th grade. Whenever I have a question and call the teacher, the teacher almost always calls me back the same day. If I call around 3pm, then of course they will not call me back that day because most school hours are from 8am-3pm. Some of the teachers are nags and call me every couple of weeks. I play a sport at a very competitive level, but my teachers work with me and don't give me such of a hard time for overdue lessons because they know I am busy training read more

This is our 3rd year at Capistrano and have had nothing but wonderful experiences. The only issue we ever did have was a lack of socialization. But this year they are changing that with Cafe and fireside chats where your child could interact with others. I am surprised to hear that others have had trouble reaching instructors as we have always had a return call/email within 24 hours. I think that some families expect an immediate return, but they have to remember that the Instructors are very busy and it is not the same as being able to go into a brick and mortar school to speak with an instructor. I am laughing too by the complaints of too much work. Really? This is High School and real life. My daughter is Asperger and it is even a bigger struggle, not to mention that I also work. But, if you are organized and face the realization early that this is preparing them for life..than you will be fine. It is not easy, but neither is life and if you want them to be successful, it will take hard work. They offer wonderful electives and many educational field trips. There are also MANY clubs to chose from that offer even more socialization for your child. All in all...this is a wonderful school. This our 3rd year and we have 2 more to go until completion... read more

Nice concept, but there is still too much work to be done. The teachers do not interact enough with the students and are very hard to get ahold of. Each teacher has one 1-hour live lesson time each week, and while it is "mandatory" that the students attend, the classes are usually full 5-10 minutes before they start and the teachers will not allow extra students or accomodate the remaining students with another scheduled time. The few times my daughter has needed help from a teacher she has had to wait at least until the next day to get a response as they do not EVER seem to pick up their extension, and the response is always in email form. Usually by then she has already finished the assignment and moved on so she is not behind in her work. This isn't a huge problem for us because she does so well in her studies, but a child who struggles from time to time would not do well in this program and would have huge gaps in their learning. It troubles me that the teachers don't think of this. I understand the teachers perks of being able to work from home a few days a week and leave early, but they take far too much personal time. Even with the ability to work from home they still regularly call in sick, but there are no substitutes for the days they are out and having been sick becomes a running theme of excuses for the teacher for the next few weeks. The teachers do not seem dedicated to their jobs and the students they teach like a lot of the teachers I've found in other schools. The school also transfers teachers and counselors within the school very frequently. In six months time, both of my kids have had their counselors and several teachers changed mid-course, even though they are all still with the school. Isn't this a change better made during the summer? This program has potential, but it's a mess right now. read more

My daughter is just completing her second year here, going into her Senior year in the fall. We have been very happy with the experience! We were looking for an alternative to the overwhelming schedule and work load of a traditional high school, but we still wanted access to Honors and AP classes. As for virtual school in general, we love the flexibility it affords, the ability to work at your own pace, in your own rhythm, and still be able to have time to enjoy other aspects of life with family and friends. It enables such a better school/life balance and leads to more well-rounded young adults. We looked at several virtual schools before deciding on CCA, each one offering a slightly different balance of independence and structure. Each student is different of course, but for my daughter we found a good balance with CCA. It was a big adjustment in the beginning, learning to be organized and self-managing, but those are skills that will last a lifetime. I have been so impressed with how accessible the teachers are, and how they clearly are so invested in each individual student's success. There have been one or two minor bumps as could be expected...in Sophomore year we found that the online test program for math was cumbersome and time consuming, but they took feedback on that from a lot of people and worked to make it better. In Junior year we found that the curriculum made a huge jump from Spanish II to Spanish III, making it very difficult to transition and do well. Again this feedback from many was all passed along the to curriculum developers from examination. And that's just the point...these are the same kind of issues one might find in a traditional high school, but with little if any hope of there being any changes. I highly recommend CCA! read more

My daughter is in this school for 3 years since 4th grade and it is just outstanding! We were very hesitant to start homeschooling, both me and my husband work full time and didn't expect that homeschooling may work for us, we worried that our daughter will lose her pace and drive to learn, but had no choice because of a lot of travels for her tennis tournaments. Academics are always on the first place in our family and I am so happy we made this move because it gave my daughter not only flexibility in her daily schedule, but an advantage to move faster with her studies. The curriculum is great and teachers are fantastic , efficiently organized system developed by this school provides unlimited possibilities for kids. Teachers pay very close attention to every child's individual needs and abilities, they are always there if any help needed. My daughter loves math and it was a bit boring for her in a regular school, at Connections she was able to move at her pace and she is now 2 years ahead of her classmates, just finished 9th grade Geometry being in the 7 grade in fact and is in a GATE /gifted program for all her subjects. Also I don't have any worries about bullying or any other problems that regular schools often have, she wasn't sick once for the past 3 years, because of infections, or flu... Even though most time kids and teachers communicate thru Skype -like Live Lessons and discussions, they have great system of field trips and activities where children actually meet and have fun. Every semester she gets her Honors Certificate and it is overwhelming. Before we started this Academy we lived in Palos Verdes, CA because of their outstanding school ranking, now I can live anywhere in the world and get the best education for my daughter...one more thing - the self study techniques and communication tools between students and teachers make kids 100% ready for College. My older son was absolutely lost first year in College - because was not ready for the amount of self-studies expected, I don't have to worry about my daughter at all, I see that she will be at the top of the game and the way she writes emails - not all top management corporate level executives can do... Thank you, Connections! read more

If you just want public school at home, to chain your kids to their desks for the entire day then this is the school for you! This school has some of the worst teachers I have seen. They are unhelpful, don't care about students, and just want to get their money. The servers they host the website on are just outright awful even though Connections Academy was bought out by Pearson. They have problems with what they call LiveLessons, just about every day. LiveLessons are just teachers teaching in a modified twitch livestream, but just with worse software. They crash about every 15-20 minutes, the kids are just plain retarded and its just very hard to watch. The main school lessons are in fact not made by the teachers, just by some person who thinks hes better then the teachers. The lessons quality is also just plain out terrible, with me telling my kids to go to external websites to learn and just take the quiz after they read from the other websites. This is not real homeschooling, just public school that is everywhere your kids go tugging you down and keeping them chained to their electronic devices. If your a seasoned homeschooler parent and want to take your kids freedom and the beinfits of homeschooling away join Connections Academy. Otherwise DONT JOIN!!! You have been warned. read more