Daytona College Student Defense Lawyer — Ormond Beach

Daytona College is a single-campus private for-profit institution in Ormond Beach — not, despite the name, in Daytona Beach, and not connected to Daytona State College, which is a public Florida College System institution with an entirely different legal position. That distinction matters at the outset, because the two are governed by different law.

65.63% of 32 first-time candidates

The associate-degree program passed 65.63% of 32 first-time candidates in 2025 against a floor of 76.05% — twenty-one passes and eleven failures, roughly ten points short.

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 — in 2025 that floor was 76.05% for associate-degree programs and 77.17% for practical-nursing programs. Section 464.019(5)(a)2 puts a program two consecutive years below the floor at risk of probation and loss of approval, and section 464.019(5)(c) then obliges the program 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 — but the Department of Health’s licensing portal does publish a current status for each approved program, so it can be checked there as well as in the board’s minutes and orders. Every Florida program is tabulated on the Florida nursing program 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 enrollment agreement, the catalog and the student and program 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 enrollment 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.

Do not confuse it with Daytona State College

Worth restating, because it changes the whole analysis. Daytona State College is public: Fla. Stat. section 1006.60(3) applies to it in full, including the right to be accompanied by counsel and the burden resting on the institution, and its decisions are reviewable by petition for writ of certiorari in the circuit court within 30 days under Fla. R. App. P. 9.100(c). Daytona College is private: none of that applies, and the claim is contractual. A student who assumes the public-college framework because of the similar name will build the wrong case and may miss the deadlines that actually govern.

Where a Daytona College case is filed

Ormond Beach is in Volusia County, in the Middle District of Florida, assigned by Local Rule 1.04(a) to the Orlando Division — subject to any forum or arbitration term in the enrollment agreement.

What can a student defense lawyer do here?

• Resolve the arbitration question first, from the agreement the student actually signed.
• Assemble the enrollment agreement, catalog and program 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 authorize.
• 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 defense page.

What Daytona College’s own documents say about its nursing programs

Daytona College runs three nursing programs from one campus at 425 S. Nova Road, and they are not in the same position. The College Catalog, January 2026, Volume XXV lists the Associate of Science in Nursing (page 45) as a 72 semester-credit hybrid program of about 21 months, general education online and clinicals that may fall on weekends; the Practical Nursing diploma (page 46) as 47.5 semester credits over 72 weeks, classes running between 8:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m.; and Nursing (RN to BSN) as an online completion degree. Page 85 puts total program cost at $49,900 for the degree and $23,050 for the diploma.

The accreditation is split. The college itself is accredited by the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges. The associate degree carries separate nursing accreditation from the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing, whose most recent decision the college reports as Continuing Accreditation. The RN to BSN program is only a candidate for initial accreditation, effective June 5, 2025, with candidacy expiring June 5, 2027.

A statement dated March 6, 2025 under consumer information says the associate degree nursing program was placed on a two-year probation status with the Florida Board of Nursing, its first-time pass rates being 72 percent for 2023 and 78.26 percent for 2024. The Board’s own Nursing Compare record, read on September 17, 2026, still showed that program (license 704119) as Probationary and the practical nursing certificate (license 701117) as Approved, at 85.71 percent for 2025. If you were in the diploma program, you were in the one not on probation.

The grades and the repeat limits that end a nursing program here

Nursing students are graded on a different rule from everyone else, and the catalog prints the trap in plain sight. Page 14 shows a scale on which a C runs from 70 to 79 percent, then adds a line beneath it: nursing students “must pass courses with an 80% or higher.” Failing any one component of a nursing course, lecture, lab, simulation or clinical, produces a recorded F for every component of it.

The repeat limits are hard numbers. Only one repeat of the same nursing course is allowed; a second failure of it means dismissal, and three nursing course failures in any combination, counting repeats, also means dismissal. Page 19 requires a cumulative grade point average of 2.0 at the end of the first semester and 3.0 for every semester after it; page 17 requires a B (3.0) average to graduate. Withdrawing from a course in the associate degree program is allowed once in the whole enrollment and, under page 15, only during the final semester; a withdrawal after the course is half over is graded WF, which the catalog treats as a failure in deciding whether the student may stay. Page 13 says flatly that the college does not offer a leave of absence. Clinical make-up hours cost $40 an hour, and a cleared background check and negative drug, alcohol and driver’s license screening must be kept current throughout enrollment.

Who decides, what you file, and the one handbook the college does not post

There are two routes. Academic dismissal runs through the satisfactory progress rules: after a warning period the student submits the Satisfactory Academic Progress Evaluation and Appeal Form and must say what has changed. The catalog gives no filing deadline for it, says all appeal decisions are final, and requires any second appeal to rest on a different reason.

Everything else goes through the Complaint Procedure dated August 2025. Speak to the instructor first; if it is unresolved within two days of the incident, put the grievance in writing, signed, to the college Director, who schedules a meeting within one day of receiving it. Outside the college it names the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges (Arlington, VA, 703-247-4212), then the Commission for Independent Education, and for distance students the FL-SARA PRDEC Council.

The gap worth acting on is the Nursing Student Handbook. The catalog sends nursing students to it twice, for attendance and make-up work, and page 16 says every nursing student is issued one and is accountable for it, including revisions made during enrollment. The college does not post it. Ask in writing for the edition in force on your start date and every revision since; that is the document the attendance and clinical decisions were made under.

Reporting a Title IX complaint, and asking for accommodations

The Title IX and Violence Against Women policy for 2025-2026, published September 26, 2025, is unusually detailed for a school this size. A formal complaint must be written, signed, and given to the Associate Campus Director, who is the Title IX Coordinator, or to the named alternate. The standard is preponderance of the evidence. There is a live hearing with cross-examination, in person or by recorded video call, questions screened by the chair. Each party may have an advisor, and the policy says in terms that the advisor may or may not be an attorney and may inspect and review evidence. An investigative summary goes to participants at least 10 days before the hearing; written responses and hearing questions are due to the coordinator three days before it. Appeals lie only for procedural irregularity, a policy not followed, new evidence, or conflicting evidence, and go to a newly appointed committee. No deadline for filing one is published.

Accommodations sit outside the catalog, in the Students with Disability Policy posted under consumer information. Requests go to the Director of Education on a Request for Accommodation form, with an assessment by a physician or other licensed provider made within the past three years. The policy asks for requests six weeks ahead and warns the process usually takes six to eight weeks. A denial, or a different accommodation than the one sought, may be appealed in writing to the Director of Education or Campus President, answered within 15 business days of acknowledging receipt.

Other Florida colleges

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 colleges:

• Daytona State Flagler/Palm Coast Campus
• Eckerd College
• EFSC Aviation Center
• Embry-Riddle
• FAMU
• FGC Public Safety Training Center

Common questions about Daytona College cases

Is Daytona College the same as Daytona State College?

No, and the difference is fundamental. Daytona State College is a public institution covered by Fla. Stat. section 1006.60(3) with certiorari review available. Daytona College is a private for-profit school where the claim is contractual and that statute does not apply.

What was Daytona College’s nursing pass rate?

65.63% of 32 first-time candidates in 2025 — twenty-one passes and eleven failures — against a statutory floor of 76.05%.

Where is the campus?

Ormond Beach, in Volusia County — not Daytona Beach, despite the name.

Which court covers Ormond Beach?

The Middle District of Florida, Orlando Division. Volusia County is assigned to Orlando by Local Rule 1.04(a) — subject to any forum-selection or arbitration clause.

My son passed a nursing course with a 78. Why does Daytona College call that a failure?

Because nursing courses are graded on a stricter rule than the rest of the college. The College Catalog of January 2026 prints a scale on page 14 on which 70 to 79 percent is a C, then adds a line under it requiring nursing students to pass with 80 percent or higher. The same page says that failing any one component of a nursing course, whether lecture, lab, simulation or clinical, records an F for every component of the course, so a strong classroom average does not rescue a failed clinical.

The dismissal letter cites a Nursing Student Handbook we have never been given. Can we ask for it?

Yes, and you should ask in writing. The catalog sends nursing students to that handbook for attendance and make-up work and states on page 16 that every nursing student is issued one and is accountable for it, including revisions made during enrollment. The college does not post it with the catalog, complaint procedure and Title IX policy on its consumer information page, so request the edition in force on the start date together with every revision issued since.