CBT Technology Institute Student Defense Lawyer

CBT Technology Institute operates three Miami-Dade County campuses — its main campus in Miami, plus Hialeah and Cutler Bay. All three are for-profit, licensed by Florida’s Commission for Independent Education and participating in federal student aid. All three sit in the Southern District of Florida, Miami Division, so unlike some multi-campus operations the venue question is simple here.

Which campus holds your record still matters

Even with a single court division, the campuses are separate for the purposes that affect you. Each has its own catalogue and catalogue supplements, its own programme offerings, its own faculty and its own student records. If you are appealing, the policy that governs you is the one your campus published in the year you enrolled — not the current version on the shared website, and not another campus’s version. Confirm in writing which campus holds your record if there is any doubt, particularly if you transferred between campuses mid-programme, because a transfer is exactly the situation in which two different catalogue editions can both plausibly apply and the school will pick the one that suits it.

A caution about pass rates attributed to this school

You may be shown a Board of Nursing pass rate for CBT. Be careful with it. Where a chain reports under institution-level programme codes rather than campus-designated ones, a figure cannot honestly be attributed to a particular campus, and I am not going to attribute one here. If a nursing or allied-health pass rate matters to your case, write to your campus and ask which Board programme code its programme is reported under, then take the figure from that code. A number quoted at the wrong campus is worse than no number, because it lets the school correct you instead of answering you.

Allied-health certification: the disqualification is structural, not disciplinary

Radiography, respiratory care and the other allied-health credentials work the same way as nursing in one respect and differently in another. The same part is that completion of an approved programme is a statutory precondition, so a dismissal blocks the credential. The different part is that no one treats the dismissal as misconduct.

For radiologic technology, section 468.301(8), Florida Statutes, defines an “educational program” as didactic or clinical training with specified objectives that is subject to departmental approval; section 468.305 puts approval of those programmes with the Department of Health rather than a separate board; and section 468.304 requires each applicant to submit sworn evidence of having completed one. Section 468.3101 lists the disciplinary grounds — criminal convictions related to practice, adverse action by another state or a national certifying organisation — and academic dismissal is not among them. Respiratory care under part V of chapter 468 is built the same way: section 468.351 states the licensing purpose, licensure requires completion of an approved programme plus a recognised national examination, and nothing in the part makes a dismissal an independent disqualifier.

Why that distinction is worth money to you: it means the thing standing between you and the examination is a completion record, and completion records are negotiable in a way that findings of misconduct are not. A withdrawal recoded in place of a dismissal, a readmission with advanced standing, a documented clinical make-up, a transcript that shows the hours you actually did — each of those restores eligibility without anyone having to concede fault. Conversely, if the school reports the exit to a national certifying organisation as a conduct matter, the calculus changes completely, because section 468.3101 does reach adverse action by a national organisation. Establishing early which of the two is happening is the first thing to pin down in writing.

Career-college enrolments end in two different ways

Worth separating before you appeal, because the two run on different tracks. An academic or conduct dismissal comes from the programme and is governed by the catalogue’s progression and conduct policies. A loss of federal aid eligibility comes from the financial aid office under the satisfactory academic progress rules — grade average, completion pace, maximum timeframe — and it has its own appeal, its own deadline and its own decision-maker, and it turns on documented mitigating circumstances plus a workable academic plan rather than on a disagreement about a grade. Students frequently appeal the wrong one and lose the window on the right one. Look at who signed the letter and what policy it cites; if it is ambiguous, ask in writing which it is, today.

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 student defence

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 CBT Technology Institute cases

Does it matter which CBT campus I attended?

Yes. All three are in the Southern District of Florida, Miami Division, so venue is the same, but each campus has its own catalogue, supplements, programmes, faculty and records. The policy that governs you is the one your campus published in the year you enrolled. If you transferred between campuses, confirm in writing which record and which catalogue edition apply.

What is CBT’s nursing pass rate?

I am not going to attribute one, and you should be wary of anyone who does. Where a multi-campus school reports under institution-level programme codes rather than campus-designated ones, a figure cannot honestly be assigned to a single campus. Ask your campus in writing which Board programme code it reports under and take the number from there.

My enrolment ended but I am not sure why. How do I find out?

Look at who signed the letter and which policy it cites. A programme or dean citing a progression or conduct policy is an academic decision; a financial aid office citing satisfactory academic progress is an aid decision. They have different appeals, deadlines and decision-makers. If the letter does not make it clear, write and ask which it is — both clocks are already running.

Can I still be certified in an allied-health field?

Not without completing an approved programme. For radiologic technology, section 468.304 requires sworn evidence of completing a department-approved programme, and respiratory care under part V of chapter 468 works the same way. Neither treats academic dismissal as misconduct, so the obstacle is a completion record rather than a finding against you.

Which court covers CBT Technology Institute?

All three campuses are in Miami-Dade County, which is in the Southern District of Florida, Miami Division. Read your enrolment agreement first — an arbitration clause may take the dispute out of court.

How long do I have to appeal?

Check the catalogue your campus issued in your enrolment year, and assume the window is short — days from the date on the letter is common at career colleges. File a short notice inside it even if your argument is not finished, and request the complete record and the policy provision relied on at the same time.