Gwinnett Institute Orlando Student Defense Lawyer | Nursing

Gwinnett Institute’s Orlando campus ran the largest below-benchmark practical-nursing cohort in Florida in 2025. It is also the Florida campus of a Georgia institution, which changes the first questions to ask.

68.93% of 103 first-time candidates

The practical-nursing programme passed 68.93% of 103 first-time candidates against a 2025 practical-nursing floor of 77.17% — seventy-one passes and thirty-two failures. A hundred and three candidates is a large cohort for a PN programme, which means the rate is a stable measure and not an artefact of a small class.

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.

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.

A Georgia institution operating in Florida

Gwinnett Institute is headquartered in Georgia and runs Orlando as a Florida location, and the federal data carries more than one record for it, which suggests the corporate structure has changed at some point. Practical consequences to settle before anything is filed: which entity the enrolment agreement names, which state’s law it selects, where it requires disputes to be brought, and whether any arbitration clause fixes a seat in Georgia. A student who enrolled in Orlando and reads their agreement for the first time after a dismissal is often surprised by the answers.

The Florida Commission for Independent Education licenses the Florida operation regardless of where the parent sits, so the CIE complaint route remains available and is not displaced by an out-of-state forum clause.

Where an Orlando case is filed

Orange County is in the Middle District of Florida, assigned by Local Rule 1.04(a) to the Orlando Division — subject to whatever the enrolment agreement says about forum.

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 nursing 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 nursing programs:

Common questions about Gwinnett Institute Orlando cases

What was Gwinnett Institute Orlando’s pass rate?

68.93% of 103 first-time candidates in 2025 — seventy-one passes and thirty-two failures — against a practical-nursing floor of 77.17%. It was the largest below-benchmark PN cohort in Florida that year.

Gwinnett is a Georgia school. Where would my case be heard?

That depends on the enrolment agreement. Check which entity it names, which state’s law it selects, where it requires disputes to be brought and whether arbitration is seated in Georgia. Absent such a term, Orange County sits in the Middle District of Florida, Orlando Division.

Can I still complain to a Florida regulator?

Yes. The Florida Commission for Independent Education licenses the Florida operation whatever the parent’s home state, and an out-of-state forum clause does not displace that route.

Does Fla. Stat. 1006.60(3) apply?

No. It governs Florida public colleges. This is a private for-profit institution, so the enrolment agreement and handbooks govern as a contract, under Sharick v. Southeastern University of the Health Sciences.