Miami Regional University Student Defense Lawyer

Associate through doctoral, on one campus

Miami Regional University operates a single campus in Miami Springs, in Miami-Dade County, and runs nursing across an unusually wide range of levels: an associate degree in nursing, a BSN, a direct-entry MSN, and a DNP. It is a private institution.

Its associate program passed 93.4% of first-time candidates in 2025, well above the 76.05% statutory benchmark. That matters for how a dismissal case is framed: where a program is performing strongly, the dismissal is unlikely to be explicable by pressure on the cohort’s pass rate, and turns instead on the specific facts and the specific paperwork. The defense is narrower and almost entirely documentary.

This is a private institution, so it is not a state actor: the Fourteenth Amendment does not reach it, and Fla. Stat. section 1006.60(3) — which gives students at Florida’s public colleges and state universities a legal representative who may question witnesses — does not apply. What governs is the school’s own published policy, enforced as a contract, and in Florida Sharick v. Southeastern University of the Health Sciences makes that contract carry real damages where an institution departs from its own procedures.

What is at stake escalates sharply with the level

This is the point that distinguishes a case here, and it is worth being concrete about, because the same procedural defect is worth very different amounts depending on where in the ladder it occurs.

An associate student dismissed early has lost time and tuition and can often transfer credits. A direct-entry MSN student is typically a career-changer who has already completed a bachelor’s degree, left employment, and committed to an intensive sequence with no partial credential to fall back on — the program is the qualification, and there is nothing to show for two-thirds of it. A DNP student dismissed near completion has lost a doctorate.

Under Sharick, Florida measures damages for an institution’s departure from its own procedures by reference to the lost value of the degree. So the further into the ladder a dismissal occurs, the larger that measure becomes — and the more disproportionate it is to accept a procedural shortcut quietly. A DNP or direct-entry MSN student near completion should not treat a defective process as a matter to absorb.

Graduate nursing dismissals do not look like undergraduate ones

At the graduate levels the failure modes shift, and the documents to gather shift with them.

Clinical and preceptor placement. Graduate nursing depends on preceptors, and preceptor availability is frequently the program’s problem rather than the student’s. Where a student could not complete hours because a placement was not secured, and is then penalized for the shortfall, the question is whose obligation the placement was under the published handbook.

Professionalism and fitness. Graduate and doctoral nursing programs apply professional-behavior standards that are far broader than any academic rule. That breadth is a defect as much as a weapon: a vague standard applied inconsistently is the classic arbitrary-and-capricious case, and how comparable conduct by other students was treated is the argument.

The scholarly project. A DNP project dismissal is usually a supervision dispute in substance — changing requirements, a change of chair, feedback that arrived too late to act on. The record of what was asked and when is the case.

Licensure. Advanced practice registered nurse licensure and certification bodies ask about dismissals and professionalism findings. A finding recorded as a fitness concern reads worse than an academic deficiency, and that wording is negotiable while the matter is open and fixed once closed.

Under Fla. Stat. section 464.019(5)(a)1 a Florida nursing program’s first-time NCLEX passage rate must stay within 10 percentage points of the national average for comparable programs; two consecutive years below that floor puts approval at risk, and section 464.019(5)(c) obliges a program on probation to disclose that status to students in writing. The full picture is in the 2025 pass rates for every Florida program below the benchmark.

The first written request

Before responding substantively, ask in writing for the specific provision alleged, a complete copy of the catalog or handbook containing it in the edition applicable to your cohort, the material the school is relying on, and the deadline by which you must respond. Catalogs are cohort-specific, and a school applying a later edition to an earlier cohort has departed from its own contract. Keep the request and the reply.

Three routes stay open whatever the catalog says: the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights on Section 504, ADA, Title IX, Title VI or retaliation; the institution’s accreditor, which cares whether a school follows its own published policy; and the Florida Commission for Independent Education, which licenses independent postsecondary institutions here. For an approved nursing program, the Board of Nursing is a fourth.

What can a student defense lawyer do here?

• Establishing whose obligation a clinical or preceptor placement was under the published handbook where hours could not be completed
• Contesting open-textured professionalism and fitness findings as arbitrary and capricious, on consistency
• Building the record on a DNP scholarly project dispute, where changing requirements and late feedback are the substance
• Quantifying Sharick damages by level, which rise steeply for direct-entry MSN and DNP students near completion
• Negotiating the characterization of any outcome with APRN licensure and certification in view
• Building Section 504 and ADA claims where accommodations were delayed, diluted or refused
• Handling graduate and doctoral dismissal and nursing school dismissal
• Handling progress committee decisions and remediation disputes

Where a claim would be filed

Miami Springs is in Miami-Dade County, which 28 U.S.C. section 89(c) places in the Southern District of Florida, Miami Division — the court where I am admitted and where I practice. See the guide to federal districts by campus and the Florida nursing programs page.

The other Florida nursing and health-sciences schools

Florida’s standalone nursing and health-sciences colleges differ sharply in what their own paperwork permits. Some bar a lawyer from the room entirely, some compel arbitration in another state, and some publish no appeal deadline for the student at all while binding themselves to one. Those provisions, not the school’s reputation, decide how a dismissal case runs.

• University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences — OT, PT and speech-language pathology; post-licensure nursing only, no prelicensure program
• Galen College of Nursing — five Florida campuses; arbitration seated in Louisville, loser-pays
• HCI College — counsel barred outright, no student filing deadline published, and all appeals declared final
• Arizona College of Nursing — counsel barred except in Title IX and disability matters
• Southeastern College — AAA Commercial arbitration with fee-shifting running only to the school
• FVI School of Nursing and Technology — Miami and Miramar, both above the 2025 benchmark
• Fortis College and Fortis Institute — four campuses across all three federal districts; Cutler Bay passed 52.94%
• International College of Health Sciences — 514 first-time candidates in 2025, and no federal IPEDS record at all
• Cambridge College of Healthcare & Technology — the “Orlando” campus is in Altamonte Springs and the “Miami” campus in Miami Gardens
• New Professions Technical Institute — 69.38% on 160 candidates, below the statutory benchmark

Before anything else, check where your program sits against the statutory floor: the 82 Florida nursing programs below the Fla. Stat. section 464.019 benchmark in 2025, including the written-disclosure duty a program on probation owes its students. The Florida nursing programs page covers how these cases run, and nursing programs inside the public colleges and universities are on those institutions’ own pages in the Florida schools index — where students get the Fla. Stat. section 1006.60(3) rights that private-school students do not.

Common questions about Miami Regional University cases

How did Miami Regional’s nursing program perform on the NCLEX?

Its associate program passed 93.4% of first-time candidates in 2025, well above the 76.05% statutory benchmark. A strongly performing program means a dismissal is unlikely to be explained by pass-rate pressure and turns instead on the specific facts and paperwork.

Does it matter which level I was dismissed from?

It matters a great deal to what the case is worth. Florida measures damages under Sharick by the lost value of the degree, so a direct-entry MSN or DNP student dismissed near completion has a far larger measure than an associate student dismissed early — who can often transfer credits instead.

I could not finish my clinical hours because no preceptor was available. Is that my problem?

Often it is the program’s. The question is whose obligation securing the placement was under the published handbook. Where the handbook puts it on the program and a student is penalized for the shortfall anyway, that is a documented departure from the school’s own procedure.

My dismissal was for professionalism rather than grades. Is that harder to fight?

Not necessarily, and sometimes easier. Professionalism standards are broad and vague, which cuts both ways: a vague standard applied inconsistently is the classic arbitrary and capricious case, and how comparable conduct by other students was treated becomes the argument.

Will this affect my APRN license or certification?

It can. Those bodies ask about dismissals and professionalism findings, and a finding recorded as a fitness concern reads considerably worse than an academic deficiency. How the outcome is worded is negotiable while the matter is open and effectively fixed once it closes.

My DNP project supervision kept changing. Does that count for anything?

It is frequently the substance of the case. A DNP project dismissal is usually a supervision dispute — shifting requirements, a change of chair, feedback too late to act on — and the record of what was asked and when is what decides it.