ComplaintsforConnections Academy, LLC

• Initial Complaint

  04/07/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Customer Service Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  First call with Connections Academy at the end of February, the rep was very knowledgable and answered my questions and assured me the enrollment process takes about 1-2 weeks. I uploaded all requested info on 3/2. They sent an email to my child's district and awaited a response to confirm enrollment. The school emailed back after a few days and cc'd the rep and myself on the email. I called multiple times to inform them about the email, every rep said I would have to wait for the full 14 days for them to respond because they don't see this email anywhere. Fine. I waited 14 days. Called again after 14 days. I was assured I'd receive a call. Another 2 days and a weekend, received a call. Everything is good to go, I was told by a rep, hooray, now you enter "what we call the happy stage, stage 2! This stage is very quick, within minutes of you completing another form your child will be placed and you will. hear from your child's principal or teacher soon for placement". Great. A whole week goes by, nothing. I reach out again. Can't get through. Wait on hold forever, no response. Online chat, no agents available. Then I see a notice that spring break will begin the following week. I send an email, get a response that no one can help me via email. Fine, I'll wait til after spring break while my child has now been out of school for weeks ( they were pulled from public school due to personal safety). I call again multiple times the week after spring break, each rep telling me they don't know why our account is just sitting there but they'll have to look into it. Finally everything sounds settled, I'm told we'll get a call the following Monday. I wait until Wednesday, no response, so I call again. Same thing, oh something is odd, we'll call back later. Just received a call that we will receive a call Friday afternoon. Maybe. Unless not then someone will call with any update. I'm at my wits end, I would have chosen a different program had I known this would be.

  Business response

  04/11/2023

  Connections Academy, LLC is a provider of educational services and products to the school where the customer's student is enrolling. We apologize to this parent that the enrollment process took longer than expected. The state where this parent resides requires a District Notice of Intent to Enroll to be completed. Typically, the form is submitted to us and then we submit it to the resident school district for tracking. School districts are given 14 days to approve or deny a transfer before automatically being approved and moving forward in the process. As districts are at liberty to deny students, course placement is not reviewed until after approval is received. At the time when placement was ready to be reviewed, our school was on spring break, and placement was unfortunately delayed. To expedite enrollment, we contacted our Assistant Principal to recommend course placement and the student was placed into courses the following day. A Family Enrollment Counselor will also reach out to the parent to assist with the final steps, if they have not done so already.

  Customer response

  04/12/2023

  
  Complaint: ********
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  I understand the delay with the letter (even though I did tell two reps I recieved the letter after 3 days) and the delay with spring break, however the week after every rep I spoke with sounded just as confused as I did about the delay. Monday this week I spoke with a rep and said if it wasn't resolved by EOD I would look for another program, I was again promised it would be resolved that day. It was not, I signed up for another program that night.

  I saw other reviews that it was another two weeks to recieve supplies, so no I will not be calling the family counselor back to confirm enrollment as I already explained my plan. I will not have my child be out of school any longer. Your institution should be ashamed. 

  
  Sincerely,
  
  Tenley *****

  Business response

  04/16/2023

  We hear this parent's frustration and apologize for being unable to move her forward until the following morning. Although physical materials can take about 2 weeks to arrive, students can still begin classes immediately as most items will be available via itexts. We will also pass her concerns along to the Enrollment Team's administration to ensure clear communication of the enrollment process is provided so families are well informed and their expectations are met.

  Customer response

  04/17/2023

  
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********* and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me. While I have decided to proceed with a different curriculum I hope this school reviews their communication and processes to keep parents and students informed.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  Tenley *****

• Initial Complaint

  03/09/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Customer Service Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I tried to enroll my daughter in Willamette Connections Academy thru Pearson. This site is fake. I uploaded my daughter's birth certificate, immunization records and a receipt for Boys and Girls Club to verify address. These documents need to be uploaded before they will enroll her. After I uploaded those documents. The link to the document for request for District transfer was unsupported and a broken link that led to a YouTube video that had a Virus. The customer service was not helpful at all kept sending me emails with No links but just instructions on how to upload them. I called back and she just kept talking over me and reading off of a script like a recording. They do not respond to emails and I was even on hold for over an hour waiting for a resolution. They have my daughter's vital records and I am afraid they will be used for Fraud. There is no way to verify that they are in fact a legitimate company here in Oregon. I have filed a police report and plan on locking my daughter's social security # as well. Do not enroll your child in this program or upload any sensitive information. I tried to delete the uploaded files on the website but there was No Way to do that. I am now locked out. No one will return emails or calls. This is very scary. I believe they have been hacked or are data mining for a terrorist organization for the purposes of Identity Theft of children. Please Investigate this company and it's affiliates

  Business response

  03/28/2023

  Connections Academy, LLC provides educational services and products to Willamette Connections Academy. We are sorry to hear that Ms. Moore did not have a positive enrollment experience. We’ve reviewed her account and can confirm that we sent an email that contained the District Transfer form as an attachment. We are unable to replicate the issue she reported regarding a broken link for the form. We would like to reassure Ms. Moore that our school is indeed a legitimate organization – one that takes data privacy very seriously. We’d like to make sure Ms. Moore knows that she can request to have her family’s personal information removed from our systems. She can make that request using this form:  **************** or by calling ###-###-####. In addition, we encourage her to contact our school board or attend a meeting if she would like to know more about how our school is governed. She can learn more about those meetings here: ****************. ~Bri

• Initial Complaint

  03/01/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Before registering my children into Connections Academy in Oklahoma for the school year 2022-2023 I verified with Vianka the lady enrolling my children that Connection Academy does come to Atka for Testing and that testing would take place at the library. She stated that they come within 20 miles of my home for testing to be exact. This was important to me due to the hardship giving by a previous online school. The first issue I ran into with this school was that was they wanted both of my high schoolers to share a computer. In which I was not told about until after enrolling. Thankfully That was rectified. Unfortunately, now that we are ending the school year and my oldest is graduation, they , Principal Melissa *******, Vice Principal Jennifer ***** and District Testing Coordinator Sara ******* are insisting I travel to towns 45- 60 minutes away. I am seriously injured and need hip and knee surgy. We have two vehicles, one vehicle my My husband who just got back to work after neck surgery uses and one my son uses to go back and forth in. And they work Monady - Friday. Even if I could use one of the vehicles I cannot sit in a car or walk around all day in the excruciating pain that I am in all day everyday. More in less do it for two days straight in a town 45-60 minutes away. I am being told that if my son doesn't test he can't graduate. That's because this is a for profit school who wont get paid if he doesn't test. They don't care about the students themself. If they did they would not flat out lie to parents to get you to enroll their children to turn around and give them, me, a hard time. I have been told that this is a school that governs itself and there is no one for me to report them to. So I am reporting them here and to who ever funds them. I'll sent a complaint to the Governor too while I'm at it. I'll make it public for all to see. Since they lied to get me to register my children they can fallow through with their lie. This has been the worst school I have ever had dealt with and I have dealt with many. Teachers don't respond back to the children, the school is not as advertised and they down right lie to you. Do better....

  Business response

  03/29/2023

  Connections Education LLC supports the school the parent’s student attends, Oklahoma Connections Academy. We understand the parent’s concerns about getting her student to state testing. Oklahoma state law requires that students meet certain assessment requirements in order to graduate from a public high school with a standard diploma (see 70 O.S. § 1210.508). At this time, there is no applicable provision in the law exempting the parent’s student from the Grade 11 College and Career-Ready Assessments (see attachment for details). The School’s Entrance Agreement, which every family signs, requires that students “attend in-person state testing days and take the assigned assessments.”
  
  We apologize for any misunderstanding that may have occurred with regard to specific testing locations. Each year, Oklahoma Connections Academy schedules testing locations across the state based on the geographical location of enrolled students, as well as testing site availability. These locations are typically not finalized until well after the school year begins. As such, the Enrollment Team and staff at Oklahoma Connections Academy are not aware of any specifics with regard to these locations until testing sites are finalized.
  The specific library referenced by the parent in Atoka, Oklahoma, is not conducive to administering the American College Testing (ACT) exam because it doesn’t meet requirements set by ACT. The school makes every effort to minimize travel time for families, with a goal of keeping travel distance/time at no more than 50 miles/1 hour. The location where the student is currently assigned is 45 minutes from where the student lives. 
  
  The school frequently works with families to resolve testing issues, including, for example, reimbursement for gas expenses, providing ride-share services, and/or alternate testing locations when possible. Prior to the submission of this complaint, the school made numerous efforts to contact the parent, but was unable to have a fruitful conversation. The school was able to make contact with the parent on March 28, 2023, and had a productive conversation, with a follow-up conversation planned in the next few days. The school is hopeful that this issue will be resolved very soon.

• Initial Complaint

  02/09/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Customer Service Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I went to meetings and spoke to multiple "enrollment specialist" about enrolling my daughter. Through the process I was ensured that I turned things in on time and was just awaiting course placement. The application was complete before 1/31 and required docs that took a lot to recover were turned in by the deadline. I was told after calling to see what was going on on Feb 6th (no one reached out to me or attempted to inform me of what was going on) that they were backed and weren't able to place my daughter in a course in time. This has inconvenienced my entire family. The school is unprofessional, unorganized, and obviously in over their heads

  Business response

  02/10/2023

  Connections Academy, LLC is a provider of educational services and products to the school the customer's students attend. We're sorry about the experience this parent had while enrolling her. Her enrollment documents were submitted by their Jan 31 document submission deadline, but enrollment was not confirmed by the parent by the Feb 3 deadline. Academic records are carefully reviewed, so placement may take more than a few days to complete. Each member of our Placement team (Academic Placement Advisors, Principals, and Counselors) has up to 3 days (and a week for our Special Education team) to review documents and recommend courses. In this family's case, after verifying the last academic document, an advisor requested placement recommendation from the principal. Each party completed their step within their allotted time frame, but this extended past the Feb 3 Final Confirmation deadline. After the parent spoke with Enrollment on Feb 6, the advisor reached out to the principal on the parent's behalf to ask for an exception to the deadline, which was approved. We're glad to announce the student is now enrolled, but we apologize again for the delays and confusion. ~Bri

• Initial Complaint

  12/13/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I enrolled my son Dominic ****** into this Pearson online private school on 11/30/22. Prior to his enrollment, I paid a tuition payment of $4752 for the full academic year. It is important to note that this was a prorated rate since he started classes mid-semester. Prior to enrollment I was told that he would be participating in at least 3 hours of live classes a day. However, once he was enrolled and I met with his guidance counselor I learned that he had a significant amount of work to complete and would not be participating in live classes until 2nd semester, the end of January. After my son spent a couple of days completing online work, I realized that he would not be successful in this program. Therefore, I withdrew him on 12/5/22. On 12/13, I received a refund of $2376 which is only half the tuition I paid. My son was only enrolled for a couple of days due to false information that was given at the time of enrollment. According to their refund policy I should receive at least a 100% refund for 2nd semester, but this is not the case. Being that my son was a mid-semester transfer I believe the refund should have been handled differently. I have not been able to speak with a live person and I have only received occasional emails. I have not been provided with the details of how the refund was calculated.

  Business response

  01/03/2023

  Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2022/12/19) */ Connections Education LLC dba Pearson Virtual Schools USA operates the accredited online education program this student attended. We appreciate that Ms. Riddick reached out to share her concerns. Upon reviewing her account, we determined that, since Dominic was enrolled for such a short time, the family is entitled to a refund of the entire amount paid. On December 19, 2022, we credited an additional $2376 to the credit card used to make the original payment. This second credit will appear on the account in accordance with the credit card's policy, bringing the total refund to $4752. Finally, our school's phone lines have been unavailable recently as we work to update our systems. We recognize that this customer was unable to reach us by phone and we apologize for the frustration she experienced during that time. Should Ms. Riddick have further questions; she may reach us at ********************************.

• Initial Complaint

  05/23/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Customer Service Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  I am filing a complaint against Ohio Connections Academy. I called Ohio Connections Academy last year and asked to be removed from the USPS mailing list. I am still receiving mail at my residence in my name from them after I asked to be removed from their residential mailing list.

  Business response

  06/11/2022

  Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2022/06/01) */ Connections Academy, LLC is a provider of educational services and products to Ohio Connections Academy. I have reached out to the mail team and can confirm that we have received and acted on Ms. Norris' 5/31/2 request to be removed from our USPS mailing lists. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience, and we appreciate the opportunity to address this concern. We encourage Ms. Norris we to contact us at *******************************m if we can be of any assistance in the future. Consumer Response /* (2000, 7, 2022/06/08) */ (The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.) I am satisfied because I expect that I will no longer receive mail from this school.

• Initial Complaint

  03/31/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Order Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  My son was enrolled in connections academy for his 8th grade year we moved and I was told he would be unenrolled because we moved to a different state there are only 2 1/2 months left of school and now they are telling me my son is officially withdrawn from the school as of March 18th of 2022 he will have to be held back and repeat his grade I'm just not understanding how they can do this to a child I am disappointed and angry and that is an understatement.

  Business response

  05/05/2022

  Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2022/04/06) */ We understand Ms. ****'s frustration. Unfortunately, because our school is a public school, state law in the state where her student initially attended will not allow us to maintain his enrollment after he leaves the state. Although our school in the new state is no longer open for enrollment for 2021-22, she may enroll her son in his local brick and mortar public school in that state for the remainder of this school year. We will provide transcripts to the new school so he can receive credit for work completed during this school year.

• Initial Complaint

  01/26/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  After paying for a year of online schooling for my child, they allowed them no time to catch up. We began past mid-semester and my child was expected to do work with virtually no explanation. We received an email (after speaking to counselors to try a new approach the 2nd semester to help my child succeed) on the last day of the semester that they had withdrawn my child. Absolutely horrible customer service. None of the alleged expectations (doing a semester of work in less than 2 months) were given to us at enrollment. No response from the 'counselor' who emailed to state my child was withdrawn. We enrolled because they stated that they worked with students, no matter ability, in order to succeed. I have paid for almost a full year for a horrible 2 months of nothing.

  Business response

  02/16/2022

  Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2022/01/31) */ Connections Academy, LLC is a provider of educational services and products to the school the customer's students attend. We have shared this complaint with school administrators, who are familiar with the concerns raised by this family. Please note that our response here can not include specifics of any student's educational record in order to comply with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. This school offers a mix of teacher-led and independent learning. Many families appreciate the flexibility this approach offers, but it is not the best solution for every student. In this school, students must start from the beginning of the curriculum and are required to complete the full semester workload no matter when they start. However, teachers work with students to determine what they may have already learned in their previous school. We share this information with families during the enrollment process and it's also on our admissions website, along with links to resources to help students who start late succeed. We develop a support plan for students who are at risk of not completing their work on time. Students who do not make sufficient progress during the semester may be withdrawn and tuition will be refunded on a pro-rated basis, based on the date the student was withdrawn. We regret that our school was not a good fit for the ********* family, and we do want to note that we have already initiated a refund for the second semester tuition. A portion of the refund has already been credited to the family's credit card and the remainder will be refunded by check.

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩