Lulu Lala
1/5
It’s really sad that I have to leave a one star review but I feel like other families should be aware and do research before enrolling their children with Idea.
My review is going to be honest and detailed so the staff can also learn and hopefully make changes for the good and take my review to heart to make this a better experience for other families.
1. When you first sign up they do offer classes to “help” you get started. The lady I believe her name is Sally is disorganized and she loves to talk off topic. She always seems to have misplaced something or can’t get the computer/slides to work and goes on about how her children are the IT guys there. It’s a waste of time going to the classes because she can never seem to finish up the class and you always feel like you are missing a big piece of the puzzle. She goes on about how long she has worked there but if you have worked there for so many years you would think you would have your act together and know how to train/teach the class that you have to do each year. They are better off making a short video and emailing the slide show.
2. Once you have attended the classes you are assigned a contact teacher. I was hoping that the experience with my contact teacher would be better but it was not. I felt rushed, she had a hard time explaining what needed to be done. She and others there made me feel like I had to hurry up and decide right away on the curriculum I needed on the spot. She kept says, we will just write this down and if you change your mind later we will do that.
• In one of the classes they did encourage you if you did not feel comfortable with your contact teacher to let them know and they would reassign you to a new contact teacher.
? When you do try to get reassigned they’re not really helpful. You don’t know who to talk to and when you ask for help at the front desk the lady knows nothing. The poor lady was poorly trained or just flat out doesn’t know what she is doing. When you talk to her you feel more lost than you did before.
• If you get assigned to Kelly Hopp for a contact teacher try to get reassigned immediately.
3. Emails, phone calls and voicemails. Let talk about communication. This is one area they all lack on 100% I was so surprised the low level of communication this office has. When I would try to contact Kelly she was the worst.
• she was never is the office or she was never at her desk. It just seemed every time I called she was at the doctors or on vacation. I would leave voicemails but never got a call back ever.
What’s the next best thing? EMAIL!
• I would email her a detailed email not from just my idea web email they give you and encourage you to use but also from my own email. I would cc myself to make sure I would keep documentation that I was actively trying to get a hold of her for simple questions that a contact teacher should be able to answer. No luck, I felt blinded home schooling my child.
Once I had enough I called to see if I could speak to anyone. I was at the end of my rope. I was told that someone in Fairbanks would contact me. I waited and waited for my call back. No luck, I called again and made sure they were aware on how upset I was. I was told the Director herself would contact me, I finally got a call back after waiting for 2 weeks.
This call was the first call I finally got my questions answered. It took months and months almost the whole school year to get answers. The school year is pretty much over and I got this call at the end of April.
If you have a great experience with Idea consider yourself lucky. I would have to advise other parents to look into other homeschooling program and not consider this one.
I hope changes come with the new school year for 2018/2019 but my child will NOT be attending. I wish other families the best of luck.
