International Institute for Healthcare Professionals Student Defense Lawyer

The International Institute for Healthcare Professionals, at 510 South US Highway 1 in Fort Pierce, ran a substantial nursing cohort in 2025 and finished below the statutory floor.

70.67% of 75 first-time candidates

The associate-degree programme passed 70.67% of 75 first-time candidates against a floor of 76.05% — roughly fifty-three passes and twenty-two failures. Seventy-five candidates puts this among the larger below-benchmark private cohorts in the state, which means the rate is a reasonably stable measure rather than a small-class artefact.

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.

Where a case here is filed

Fort Pierce is in St. Lucie County, which 28 U.S.C. section 89(c) places in the Southern District of Florida, Fort Pierce Division — subject to any forum or arbitration term in the enrolment agreement. The school is also an SEVP-certified institution, which means international students on F-1 status may be enrolled; for those students a dismissal has an immediate immigration dimension that runs on its own timetable and should be addressed in parallel with the academic appeal rather than after it.

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 technical and career institutions

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 technical and career institutions:

Common questions about International Institute for Healthcare Professionals cases

What was the pass rate?

70.67% of 75 first-time candidates in 2025, against a statutory floor of 76.05% — one of the larger below-benchmark private cohorts in Florida that year.

I am here on an F-1 visa. Does that change things?

It adds urgency. The school is SEVP-certified, and for a student on F-1 status a dismissal carries immigration consequences that run on their own timetable. That has to be handled alongside the academic appeal, not after it.

Does Fla. Stat. 1006.60(3) protect me?

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

Which court covers Fort Pierce?

The Southern District of Florida, Fort Pierce Division. St. Lucie County is in the Southern District under 28 U.S.C. section 89(c).