K12 Avis 

After approximately four years with Colorado Preparatory Academy/K12, we made the decision to withdraw our remaining children. I want to start with the one area that deserves genuine praise: the teachers are excellent. They cared about our children, supported them, and were the main reason we stayed with Colorado Preparatory Academy as long as we did.

Unfortunately, the administrative side of the school was a completely different experience.

In our experience, Colorado Preparatory Academy operates far more like a corporate system than a family-centered school. There is no shortage of communication when the school needs forms completed, requirements met, trainings finished, or enrollment-related tasks handled. But when parents need answers, raise concerns, or expect timely follow-through, the level of communication and responsiveness drops significantly.

That is not acceptable for any school, and it is especially concerning for a virtual school where families are expected to carry a major part of the educational responsibility at home.

We repeatedly dealt with poor communication, inconsistent information, lack of follow-through, and recurring technical problems involving K12 systems, platforms, and equipment. These were not isolated issues. They became a pattern.

Even our final day reflected that same problem. Our withdrawal paperwork clearly identified when our children’s enrollment was supposed to end, yet my youngest son attempted to log in to finish his remaining work and had already been removed from the system. I attempted to reset his password and discovered his access was already gone.

That was incredibly disappointing, but by that point, it was also unsurprising.

After years of dealing with the same types of administrative disconnects, it reinforced exactly why we chose to leave.

The contrast with our new local school has been immediate. Communication has been clear, responsive, organized, and proactive. We have been told exactly what our children need, what to expect, and how their transition will work. Our oldest son also left Colorado Preparatory Academy after completing fifth grade, and the growth we have seen since he entered a brick-and-mortar school has been significant academically, socially, and personally. That experience helped confirm that moving our other children was the right decision.

Colorado Preparatory Academy has very good teachers working inside a system that, in our experience, does not support families with the same level of professionalism, responsiveness, or care.

That is the most frustrating part of all of this. The teachers made us feel that our children mattered. The administrative experience too often made us feel like another file, another requirement, or another number in the system.

After four years, I would not recommend Colorado Preparatory Academy based on our experience with administration, communication, technical reliability, and family support.

The teachers deserve credit. The system around them needs serious improvement.

I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS SCHOOL IF YOU WANT CONSISTENCY AND A SCHOOL ADMINSTRATION THAT CARES ENOUGH TO COMMUNICATE.

I believe one of the biggest problems with Digital Academy of Florida is the excessive number of classes, particularly classes that I believe should be optional instead of being added to an already demanding schedule.

Today, my daughter had NINE classes, while my son had SEVEN. They are seven years old and in SECOND GRADE.

At what point do we ask whether children are actually learning and retaining information rather than simply being expected to complete an excessive number of classes?

My son is strong in both math and reading. My daughter struggles more with reading, although she has improved significantly, and she does well in math. My concern is not their ability to do the work. My concern is that this workload is unrealistic for children this young and can interfere with meaningful learning.

Children need opportunities to process information, take adequate breaks, and focus on mastering core subjects. More classes and more instructional hours do not automatically equal more learning.

I have voiced my concerns to multiple school officials, not only because of my own children, but because I am concerned about ALL of the children expected to function under this type of schedule. From my experience, I do not feel these concerns about student wellness are being taken seriously.

I have also personally heard teachers speak to children in ways that I found rude and inappropriate. That is especially concerning when dealing with elementary-aged students.

My children will finish this school year, but afterward I intend to homeschool them independently. I refuse to continue placing them in an environment that I believe contributes to unnecessary overstimulation and mental exhaustion.

NINE classes in ONE DAY for a seven-year-old second grader is excessive.

Education should be about comprehension, retention, development, and mastery, not simply packing as many requirements as possible into a child's day.

Our children deserve better.

We have been at k12 for just over a week and are consistently having issues with assignments that are turned in being erased and having to redo them multiple times which is put us farther and farther behind the teachers are unable to fix the problem and tech support seems to be unwilling to help they say it’s the teachers problem even though teachers have no way to erase a students progress it is extremely difficult to get anyone on the phone. The system itself is difficult to navigate and seems to arbitrarily lock lessons when they should be available. Unless you have 18hours a day to devote to trying to make it work and help your child do classes over and over you should choose a different online school but beware they are the first one to come up if you google search a different online school. I know teachers that have left k12 because they make it so difficult to actually teach kids

The staff are all very helpful and patient. My child enjoys that she can ask questions and get the help she needs and not feel like she's annoying or bothersome. I appreciate the emails it helps me especially since I'm working different shifts it keeps me well informed.

I enrolled my daughter in this program hoping it would help with her anxiety, but it has been a terrible and inflexible experience. The school is incredibly strict with heavy workloads, making it a very poor fit for a child dealing with anxiety.Communication here is non-existent. It is nearly impossible to reach teachers to actually speak with them. Worse, my daughter wasted her entire summer in summer school because teachers assured us she had brought her grades up to passing. After all that hard work, she was held back anyway. When I finally got a hold of a counselor, I was flatly told she failed, with zero explanation as to why she was told otherwise or why her summer was completely wasted.When I reached out to the 504 coordinator for help, instead of offering accommodations, they just recommended we find a different school with a lighter workload. If your child has anxiety or needs any flexibility, this program is not going to help.

I could not agree more with disgruntled parent!! Ugh!!! My son just started 6th grade and he has not missed a class. But I received an email stating he has more than 5 absences and is on attendance warning. The school was great when he was in 4th grade, they had the flex program and he watched the classes if he couldn't do them live, then completed all the assignments. Last year, they did away with that but it was fine, we managed. This year, the disorganization of the schedule and finding assignments in different places is terrible. There is no support system, no matter who you ask. I'm disgusted, but not wanting to change because he's used to the school and the students we've gone through with the past few years. But having a kid sitting at a computer that has to hold it when he needs to use the bathroom so he doesn't get marked absent is awful. The fact that he's on the computer longer than a full time worker is so bad for any kid. There is no time between classes at all, just back to back. No outdoor time, homework through the late evening....They need to make a change because this is really ridiculous. And having to submit an absence form when their platform crashes?!? Make it make sense......

Friendly faculty and technical support team.

Student is happy. No issue on student’s home work and grade. Always communication is there with Parents and School.

I have held off on writing this review because, honestly, I felt like it was ultimately a waste of time. But I have reached my breaking point, and I genuinely hope my experience helps another parent make an informed decision about whether DAOF/K12 is the right choice for their child.

We have been part of the K12 family since Grade 1, back in 2021. After being with the program for this many years, I feel like I have given it more than enough time and opportunity. We have dealt with homeroom teacher changes right when students are finally getting settled into some sense of normalcy, along with technical issues that are absolutely insane. Every single day since the start of this school year, I have received either a phone call or multiple emails advising me of some type of technical glitch. Keep in mind, these updates are usually coming AFTER we have already discovered the problem ourselves and decided to wait for an update. At this point, I can practically set my clock by it.

Now we are in 6th grade—middle school—and you would think that after being in the program for this long, things would be different. They aren't. Instead, there is now a new process for recording attendance that is, quite frankly, stupid and backward. A student can be present for the entire class, actively participating, responding in the chat, completing the required checkpoints, and doing everything they are supposed to do. Yet, if their camera fails for whatever reason, they can still be marked absent. According to the requirements, students must be on camera and actively participate in the checkpoints in order to be marked present. So if a student is actively participating, engaging in the chat, completing the checkpoints, and the ONLY issue is that their camera fails because of a technical problem, how does it make sense to mark that student absent? There is zero accountability for the lapses in the system.

I have now installed a camera facing my child's computer so that I have evidence that she is actually sitting there, attending class, and participating when the system says otherwise. Think about that. I should not have to install a camera in my own home to document that my child is attending school, but that is where this has taken me. I no longer feel that I can rely on the school's system to accurately document whether my child was actually present.

And unfortunately, attendance is not the only issue. I saw someone refer to this as the "broke version of public school," and I honestly cannot disagree. The problem is the pace and the lack of meaningful instruction. It feels like the focus is on moving through the curriculum rather than making sure students actually understand what they are being taught. Imagine starting a syllabus and discovering that you have already completed a quarter of it. How is that humanly possible when the material is supposed to be taught, understood, practiced, and learned? You cannot introduce something completely new to a child, rush through it in a week, give them an assessment, and then move on to something else and honestly call that learning. If I am going to have to teach my child after she has already spent an entire school day in front of a computer, then I may as well figure out how to get her into a homeschool program. This school is becoming a waste of time.

Then there is the issue of textbooks and screen time. My child is now in 6th grade, and there are no traditional textbooks being provided. Everything is digital. I understand that technology is part of education, but as a parent who is actively trying to minimize my child's screen time, being told that printing the digital textbook is "not recommended" is absolutely ridiculous. REALLY? You are putting my child in front of a screen for hours every day and then telling me that printing the material so she can actually read it without another screen is not recommended?

I am also a history fanatic, so when I saw that history was the subject my child was currently working on, I was actually excited. I thought this was something we could really get into together. We are now at the beginning of Week 3. Keep in mind, Week 1 consisted of essentially nothing being taught on this material. Week 2 brought a F.A.S.T. assessment, and now the students have already completed material covering the Sumerians' role in civilization. Are you kidding me? How is a child supposed to genuinely understand the development and significance of an ancient civilization when the material is being rushed through at that pace? This isn't learning. This is checking boxes.

I’m done tolerating DAOF/K12’s technical, attendance, and teaching failures. After years of frustration, I’m reporting them to the Florida DOE. Parents: research carefully; your child’s education is at stake.

Great when it works, problem is, it's constantly messing up. Outages and issues happen regularly. My child has been a student for years, and since moving to the "Canvas" platform, its been consistent issues.

ALDCA gives so many opportunities, such as more one on one with the students. Students being able to work at their own pace. The communication between staff and parents is outstanding.

If I could give them a complete 0 stars I would. It has been an absolute mess since the beginning of the school year trying to get my son in school. Every time you call they are telling you something different. The call center agents don't know what they are talking about as well as supervisors. You can't get the school directly on the phone at all. I have been trying to withdraw my son for a month and can't get any paperwork on him. So he's just stuck home doing absolutely nothing because I can't get him into any local school without paper work from this school.

It’s a terrible program. My son attends PA Virtual charter school and they use K12 for their curriculum. Specifically for music k12 does not supply any material for the kids to use. It’s a bunch of videos that take the max of 10 minutes to go through. Not educational at all. Their physical education is just this very long books to read and some stretches at the end of reading. The reading can take my son an hour to get through. Also do not supply any material to the students to use. Art is okay. I feel the kids are not getting a proper education using K12. My daughter goes to a different virtual school and they don’t use K12. It is much better. Because my son’s school is contracted with K12 and refuse to try a different source for curriculums. I am thinking of transferring him out. He has been on the k12 program from 2023 to current.

Unfortunately, after enrolling my daughters in AZVA through K12 I found out they dont adjust the curriculum for special education students. To be a public school you need to accommodate students who have special needs. They actually refuse to accommodate my daughters with IEPs. Totally unacceptable; my daughters are struggling and have to change schools delaying their education.

I appreciate the opportunity to provide feedback because, unfortunately, my experience with the communication and administrative support has been extremely frustrating and disappointing.

The biggest issue has been the lack of timely communication and follow-up. Too often, everything seems to be handled at the last minute, and concerns submitted by email can go weeks without a response. Phone calls frequently go to voicemail, and I often do not receive a return call.

My son’s dual enrollment experience is a major example. I initially asked about dual enrollment a year ago, completed the requested paperwork, and never received a follow-up. I ultimately had to figure out the process myself. More recently, his authorization form took approximately a month to be completed, which has now contributed to my son being late registering for his classes. Mrs. Stratford also never returned my phone call to let me know the form had been completed or to address the concerns I had raised.

I also requested that my son be tested for gifted approximately a year ago. Someone finally reached out to me last month, but he still has not been tested. This level of delay is extremely concerning when these processes directly affect a student's academic progress and opportunities.

I was also unaware that the Flex Program had to be renewed every year. I only learned this when my son's homeroom teacher contacted me. That conversation was actually the first time since my son began the program that I felt I was able to speak directly with someone and get meaningful communication.

At this point, I have even considered transferring my son to a different K-12 program because I am so dissatisfied with how these matters have been handled. However, I am concerned about how long that process would take and what impact another transition could have on his academics.

I want to emphasize that my frustration is not directed at my son's teachers or the educational opportunities themselves. My concern is the lack of communication, follow-through, and timely administrative support. As a parent, I should not have to repeatedly track down information, figure out processes on my own, or wait weeks or months for responses regarding matters that directly affect my child's education.

I would strongly encourage the school to improve its communication systems, establish reasonable response times for parent concerns, provide clearer information about important program requirements and deadlines, and ensure that phone calls and emails are consistently followed up on.

I genuinely want this program to work for my son, but the current level of communication has made it very difficult to feel confident that his academic needs are being adequately supported.

Update K12 replied to my review and told me to reach out to the email provided and I did and this is what they responded to do

"Hello Bethany. You have reached the email inbox of the K12 Social Media Support Team. We are unable to assist with your request. Please contact the school directly for assistance."

As stated before no communication that is helpful. Things should not be this complicated to get help on a students education.

They are notorious for canceling class, horrible communication, most of tbe teachers dont seem to care. I definitely would not recommend them.

Has been a great option for us and enjoy the flexibility online school offers.

Great out resource for kids. I have a teen daughter who struggles with social anxiety and I'm grateful for this program to be available in the comfort of our home. Staff is great at keeping the parents up to date and supporting the kids throughout the learning process.

They did a good job helping us navigate the senior year of my sons school year. Good to deal with overall great experience

The new k12 launch pad is incredibly unhelpful, classes are too early for children in central time zone,