Medical Institute of Palm Beach Student Defense Lawyer | Greenacres

The Medical Institute of Palm Beach, in Greenacres, ran one of the larger practical-nursing cohorts in Florida in 2025 and one of the weaker results, on a cohort big enough that the figure is a description of the programme rather than a statistical accident.

57.58% of 66 first-time candidates

The practical-nursing programme passed 57.58% of 66 first-time candidates against a 2025 statutory floor of 77.17% for practical nursing — thirty-eight passes and twenty-eight failures, close to twenty points below the minimum. Sixty-six candidates makes this one of the largest below-benchmark PN cohorts in the state.

Under Fla. Stat. section 464.019(5)(a)1 a Florida nursing programme’s first-time NCLEX passage rate must stay within 10 percentage points of the national average for comparable programmes — in 2025 that floor was 76.05% for associate-degree programmes and 77.17% for practical-nursing programmes. Section 464.019(5)(a)2 puts a programme two consecutive years below the floor at risk of probation and loss of approval, and section 464.019(5)(c) then obliges the programme to disclose that probationary status in writing to its students and applicants — a failure to give that notice is an independent, statute-based misrepresentation theory against a school that enrolled a student while on probation. A single year below the floor is not probation, and the Board of Nursing publishes no probation roster, so probationary status must be established from board minutes and orders rather than inferred. Every Florida programme is tabulated on the Florida nursing programme pass-rate page.

Practical-nursing students are often the least well placed to absorb a dismissal: the programme is short, the tuition is frequently financed, and the credential is the whole point of enrolling. A programme performing this far below the statutory floor while continuing to enrol is exactly the situation section 464.019(5)(c) was written for, if probationary status can be established.

A private school, so the statute students rely on does not apply

Most writing about Florida student dismissal assumes a public college, where Fla. Stat. section 1006.60(3) supplies notice, a hearing, the right to be accompanied by counsel and a burden that rests on the institution. This is a private institution. None of that section reaches it.

What governs instead is the enrolment agreement, the catalogue and the student and programme handbooks, read as a contract. Sharick v. Southeastern University of the Health Sciences establishes that a Florida student dismissed in breach of the school’s own contractual undertakings has a claim, and that damages can extend to lost future earning capacity rather than a refund of tuition. So the work is documentary: identify the exact promises the school made about process, and show which it did not keep.

Two further things matter at schools of this kind. Many enrolment agreements contain an arbitration clause, and whether it binds a student depends on the version signed, how broadly it is drafted, whether its cost terms are unconscionable and whether the school has waived it — that question comes first, because it decides whether there is a courtroom at all. And where a school is licensed by the Florida Commission for Independent Education rather than regionally accredited, the CIE complaint route exists alongside any civil claim and is often the faster pressure point.

Where a Medical Institute of Palm Beach case is filed

Greenacres is in Palm Beach County, which 28 U.S.C. section 89(c) places in the Southern District of Florida, West Palm Beach Division. I am based in Boca Raton, in the same county. Note that the institute is recorded in federal data as not degree-granting, which is consistent with a diploma practical-nursing programme and matters when assessing what the credential was contractually promised to be.

What can a student defense lawyer do here?

  • Resolve the arbitration question first, from the agreement the student actually signed.
  • Assemble the enrolment agreement, catalogue and programme handbook for the correct edition, and pin down the promises about process.
  • Test the progression arithmetic — withdrawals, repeats and clinical failures are often counted in ways the handbook does not authorise.
  • Use the Commission for Independent Education complaint route where the school is CIE-licensed, in parallel with the civil claim.
  • Press on the wording of the decision letter, which follows the student into every future licensure and transfer application.

How Florida student dismissal cases work generally is set out on the Florida student defence page.

Other Florida health-professional programs

Every school writes its own dismissal, appeal and conduct rules, and the filing deadlines are rarely the same from one campus to the next. These pages set out the procedure at other Florida health-professional programs:

Common questions about Medical Institute of Palm Beach cases

What was the practical nursing pass rate?

57.58% of 66 first-time candidates in 2025 — thirty-eight passes and twenty-eight failures — against a practical-nursing floor of 77.17%.

Is the benchmark different for practical nursing?

Yes. Fla. Stat. section 464.019(5)(a)1 measures each programme against the national average for comparable programmes, so practical nursing had a 2025 floor of 77.17% while associate-degree programmes had 76.05%.

What is the disclosure point under 464.019(5)(c)?

A programme placed on probation must disclose that status in writing to students and applicants, with an explanation of what it means. A school that enrolled a student while on probation without giving that notice faces an independent, statute-based misrepresentation theory.

Which court covers Greenacres?

The Southern District of Florida, West Palm Beach Division. Greenacres is in Palm Beach County, which is in the Southern District under 28 U.S.C. section 89(c).