SABER College Student Defense Lawyer | Miami

SABER College is a private non-profit institution in Miami, in Miami-Dade County, licensed by Florida’s Commission for Independent Education and participating in federal student aid. Federal disputes go to the Southern District of Florida, Miami Division. Its associate degree in nursing is the programme most dismissals here come out of.

The 2025 numbers were solid, and that changes your argument

In the Board of Nursing’s 2025 reporting year, SABER College’s associate degree programme had fifty-four first-time candidates, of whom forty-four passed — an 81.48% rate against the 76.05% national benchmark for associate-degree programmes. The programme cleared the benchmark on a cohort large enough for the figure to be meaningful.

I would rather tell you that plainly than let you build a case on a number that does not exist. It means one line of argument is closed to you: you cannot say this programme was failing its students generally. It also means something more useful. A programme performing above the benchmark has no Board pressure and no institutional anxiety, so it will not settle out of nervousness — but it also has a well-run process on paper, and well-run processes are documented processes. Where a school has written procedures it is proud of, the deviation from those procedures is easier to prove, not harder. The argument moves from outcomes to procedure, which is where Florida courts actually look.

Non-profit status changes almost nothing, with one exception

Students often assume a non-profit school is held to a different standard than a for-profit one. Legally it is not: it is still a private institution, still not a state actor, so the analysis is still contractual rather than constitutional, and the enrolment agreement, catalogue and handbook still supply the terms. The one practical difference is governance. A non-profit has a board with fiduciary duties and, usually, published bylaws, which means there is sometimes a genuine appeal layer above the programme — and an audience that cares about institutional reputation in a way a chain campus director does not. Whether that layer exists here is a question to answer from the catalogue rather than assume.

How Florida measures a nursing programme, and why the number matters to your case

Section 464.019(5), Florida Statutes, ties a nursing programme’s standing to the passing rate of its first-time NCLEX candidates. When a programme’s annual rate falls below the national average passing rate for that credential, the Board of Nursing places it on probationary status, and the programme has to submit a remediation plan and hold that plan open until its rate recovers. For the 2025 reporting year the national benchmarks were 76.05% for associate-degree registered nursing, 77.59% for baccalaureate registered nursing, 77.17% for practical nursing, and 73.37% for diploma registered nursing programmes.

Be clear about what that figure does and does not do for a dismissed student. A low pass rate is not a defence. It does not make your dismissal unlawful and no hearing panel will treat it that way. What it does is three narrower things, and each of them is worth something. First, a programme carrying a remediation plan has documented obligations to its students — tutoring, repeat testing, faculty ratios, progression review — and if the programme dismissed you for a benchmark it was itself failing to support, that gap is discoverable and it is the kind of fact that changes how a complaint reads. Second, it makes consistency testable: if a cohort saw thirty per cent of its members fail the same exit exam, a dismissal justified as an individual academic failure invites the question of who else failed it and what happened to them. Third, it is leverage. A programme already under Board attention has a real institutional reason to resolve a student’s complaint quietly rather than let it become another entry in a file the Board is reading.

What a Florida court will and will not review

Your relationship with a private licensed school is contractual, not constitutional. Fourteenth Amendment due process constrains state actors, and a private institution is not one, so the argument is built on the enrolment agreement, the catalogue and the handbook rather than on due process. Sharick v. Southeastern University of the Health Sciences, 780 So. 2d 136 (Fla. 3d DCA 2000), established both that the relationship is contractual and that damages can reach the lost value of the credential itself, not just tuition paid.

The limit on that is the part students are rarely told. In Tercier v. University of Miami, 383 So. 3d 847 (Fla. 3d DCA 2023) — a nursing dismissal — the Third District confirmed that judicial review of a private institution’s academic determination is confined to whether it was arbitrary and capricious, irrational, made in bad faith, or in violation of the constitution or a statute. Jallali v. Nova Southeastern University, 992 So. 2d 338 (Fla. 4th DCA 2008) says the same thing from the other direction: schools get wide latitude to set and apply academic requirements, and the student’s implied duty is to comply with rules the school may lawfully change.

The practical translation is short. “The faculty graded me unfairly” loses. “The school did not do what its own published policy said it would do” is the claim that survives, and it is why the first thing worth doing is reading the catalogue edition that was in force when you enrolled against what actually happened to you. Tercier carries a second lesson too: the court noted that claims not briefed on appeal were treated as abandoned. Arguments have to be raised, and preserved, at each level — including inside the school’s own process.

Which regulator actually holds the leverage here

Two different agencies matter, and students routinely write to the wrong one. Florida’s Commission for Independent Education licenses the institution under chapter 1005, Florida Statutes, and the Commission is where you complain about the school — misrepresentation in recruiting, refusal to release a transcript, a refund the school will not pay, a programme that stopped being delivered as advertised. Rule 6E-1.0032, Florida Administrative Code, requires a licensed institution to maintain and follow a published grievance procedure, and the Commission expects to see that you used it before it will act, so the internal appeal is not a formality you can skip on your way to the regulator.

A professional licensing board — Nursing, Massage Therapy, Psychology, Radiologic Technology, Respiratory Care, whichever governs the credential — is a different body with different powers. It regulates the programme and the licence, not the school’s business conduct, and it will not order a school to readmit you. Sorting out which of the two can give you the thing you actually want is the first useful hour of work in most of these cases, because the wrong filing costs weeks and tells the school you are not being advised.

If the school closes while you are enrolled, section 1005.36 governs the notice it owes and the custody of student records, and section 1005.37 establishes the Student Protection Fund that can reimburse unearned tuition. Those are separate remedies from anything in your student contract and they run on their own deadlines.

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.

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 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, the CIE complaint route exists alongside any civil claim and is often the faster pressure point.

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.

Florida nursing programme NCLEX pass rates, school by school · Florida student defence

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:

Common questions about SABER College cases

What was SABER College’s NCLEX pass rate in 2025?

The associate degree programme had fifty-four first-time candidates and forty-four passed, an 81.48% rate. The national benchmark for associate-degree programmes that year was 76.05%, so the programme was above it on a reasonably large cohort.

If the pass rate is good, do I have any case at all?

Yes, but a different one. Pass rates go to the programme’s standing with the Board, not to whether you personally were dismissed properly. The claim that survives in Florida is that the school departed from its own published procedure, and that claim does not depend on outcomes at all. Under Tercier the review is limited to whether the decision was arbitrary, capricious, irrational, in bad faith or contrary to law — none of which is about pass rates.

Does it matter that SABER is a non-profit?

Not to the legal analysis. It is still a private institution, so the case is contractual rather than constitutional. It can matter practically, because a non-profit usually has a governing board and published bylaws, and that sometimes means a genuine review layer above the programme. Check the catalogue for it rather than assuming it exists.

Which court would hear a case against SABER College?

Miami-Dade County is in the Southern District of Florida, Miami Division. Read your enrolment agreement first, though — if it contains an arbitration clause, that clause may decide the forum instead.

What documents should I gather before calling anyone?

The enrolment agreement you signed, the catalogue or handbook edition in force when you enrolled, the dismissal letter with its date, anything the school gave you as the basis for the decision, and your own dated record of what happened. The catalogue edition matters because that is the contract, and schools revise catalogues yearly.

How long do I have to appeal?

Read your handbook today. Windows at institutions this size are commonly measured in days from the date on the letter. If you cannot find the deadline, write to the school asking what it is and stating that you intend to appeal — that puts your intention on the record while you work it out.