Florida Nursing Programs — Dismissals, Probation & Appeals

Written by Zachary Gaynor, attorney · The Florida Bar, admitted 2016 · court admissions. Reviewed 3 September 2026.

Which Florida nursing programs are on Board of Nursing probation?

As of 3 September 2026, 36 Florida nursing education programs were recorded on probation in the Department of Health’s licensing database — 23 registered-nursing and 13 practical-nursing programs. They are listed below. Probation is a status attached to the programme, not to any student in it, and it does not by itself say why.

Why this matters if you are the student

A programme under regulatory pressure behaves differently. Faculty turnover rises, cohorts are restructured, clinical placements get harder to secure, and progression standards are sometimes tightened mid-course to lift examination pass rates. Students are dismissed for failing standards that were changed after they enrolled.

None of that makes a dismissal unlawful on its own. But it changes what is worth asking for. If your programme is on probation, the questions become: which version of the progression policy applied when you enrolled, what changed since, when were you told, and was the standard applied to you the same one applied to the cohort before you. Those are answerable questions, and the answers are usually in documents the school already has.

How Florida’s probation mechanism works

Under Fla. Stat. § 464.019, an approved programme whose graduates’ first-time NCLEX passage rate falls below the statutory benchmark for two consecutive calendar years is placed on probation, and must remain there until the rate meets the benchmark. The benchmark is tied to the national average for first-time test takers.

For context, the 2025 national first-time pass rates were 86.71 per cent for the NCLEX-RN and 86.59 per cent for the NCLEX-PN, which put the Florida floor at roughly 76.7 per cent.

An important limit on the list below. The licensing record shows the status, not the statutory ground. Sub-threshold NCLEX passage is the most common cause of probation, but the record does not distinguish it from other grounds, and we have not assumed one. To establish why a particular programme is on probation you need the Board’s order or its meeting minutes for that programme. We have not inferred a reason for any school here, and neither should anyone else.

Registered-nursing programmes recorded on probation (23)

  • American College of Health & Sciences (Margate)
  • Brilliant Academy Health Center (Orlando)
  • Broward College (Coconut Creek)
  • Chamberlain University, Miramar
  • Daytona College (Ormond Beach)
  • Florida National University Training Center (Hialeah)
  • Florida National University (Miami)
  • Fortis College (Cutler Bay)
  • HCI College (Fort Lauderdale)
  • Keiser University (Fort Myers)
  • Keiser University (Miami, ADN)
  • Keiser University (Pembroke Pines)
  • Keiser University (Sarasota, ADN)
  • Larkin School of Nursing (South Miami)
  • Meridian West Central College (Sarasota)
  • Miami Dade College School of Nursing (ADN)
  • New Professions Technical Institute (Miami)
  • Quest Nursing Education Center (Tampa)
  • Riggs College of Allied Health (Longwood)
  • South Florida State College (Avon Park)
  • Southeastern College (Boynton Beach)
  • Tallahassee State College
  • Western Governors University (Orlando)

Practical-nursing programmes recorded on probation (13)

  • Brilliant Academy Health Center (Orlando)
  • Chancellor Institute (Fort Lauderdale)
  • Doxa Academy (Melbourne)
  • Faith Academy (Tampa)
  • Gwinnett Institute (Orlando)
  • Hajgden International College (Orlando)
  • Margate Medical Training Center
  • Medical Institute of Palm Beach (Greenacres)
  • Miami Dade College, Benjamin León School of Nursing
  • Naples Nursing Academy
  • Ridge Technical College (Winter Haven)
  • Trinity Global College (Orlando)
  • iTECH Glades Technical College (Moore Haven)

Source: Florida Department of Health, Division of Medical Quality Assurance licence verification, snapshot taken 3 September 2026. The dataset refreshes nightly and a programme’s status can change at any Board meeting. Verify a current status directly before relying on it.

The largest nursing programmes in Florida

Ranked by the number of Board-licensed programme sites, which is a verifiable proxy for scale rather than an enrolment count: Keiser University operates 30 sites, more than twice any competitor, followed by Galen College of Nursing (14), Rasmussen University (12), Jersey College (11) and Herzing University (6). Nova Southeastern runs five, including direct-entry MSN programmes at Miami and Fort Myers.

Four of Keiser’s campuses and one of Chamberlain’s two Florida sites appear on the probation list above.

The public universities

The prelicensure BSN programmes at UF, FSU, USF, UCF, FIU, FAU, UNF, UWF, FGCU and FAMU are all recorded as accredited and none appears on the probation list. UF publishes by far the most complete public policy set of any Florida nursing school — separate documents for baccalaureate and DNP academic progression, course-progression improvement plans, grade appeals and student professionalism, each individually posted. For most of the others no public student handbook could be located, which is itself worth knowing: if you cannot read the policy, request it in writing and record the date you asked.

Note that DNP and post-licensure MSN tracks are not Board-licensed at all — they are accredited by CCNE or ACEN. A blank Board status for those programmes is expected and is not a warning sign.

What usually ends a Florida nursing student’s programme

  • The exit-examination gate. ATI, HESI or Kaplan benchmark scores used as a condition of progression or graduation. Whether the published policy actually authorises the use being made of the score is the first thing to check.
  • Clinical failure and “unsafe practice” findings, which are disciplinary in substance but are frequently processed as academic decisions — which changes what procedural protections attach.
  • Two-strike course rules, common in ADN programmes, where a second failure in any nursing course ends enrolment.
  • Accommodations in the clinical setting, where responsibility is split between the school and the placement site and each points at the other.
  • The licensure shadow. How a dismissal is characterised in the record can follow a graduate into the Board’s licensure process long after the programme ends.

Related reading

Pass rates, and the Florida nursing schools covered here

Start with the numbers. Eighty-two Florida nursing programmes finished below the Fla. Stat. section 464.019 benchmark in 2025 — the full list, the statute, the two-consecutive-year probation rule, and the written-disclosure duty that a programme on probation owes its students.

Institution pages for the standalone nursing and health-sciences schools, each built on that school’s own published policy:

Nursing programmes inside the public colleges and universities are covered on those institutions’ own pages in the Florida schools index, and each of the 28 Florida College System pages now lists every campus with the selective programmes sited there. Students at those public institutions have the Fla. Stat. section 1006.60(3) rights that private-school students do not — including a legal representative who may question witnesses.

Common questions

My nursing programme is on probation. Does that help my case?

Not automatically, and it is not a defence to a dismissal. What it does is make certain questions worth asking — whether progression standards changed after you enrolled, when you were told, and whether the standard applied to you matched the one applied to earlier cohorts.

Does probation mean my degree or my NCLEX eligibility is at risk?

A programme on probation remains an approved programme, and its students remain eligible to sit the NCLEX. The risk is practical rather than formal: probation is a step on a path that can end in termination of approval, so a student in a programme on probation should keep their own records of enrolment, transcripts and clinical hours.

Can I find out why my programme is on probation?

Yes, but not from the licence record, which shows status only. The Board of Nursing’s order or meeting minutes for that programme will state the ground. Those are public records and can be requested.

Can a school raise the exit-exam score required to graduate after I have enrolled?

That depends on what the catalog and handbook in force when you enrolled actually said, and on what the school reserved the right to change. It is one of the most commonly contested points in Florida nursing dismissals and it turns on documents, so keep the version you were given at orientation.