Hollywood Institute Student Defense Lawyer | Margate

Hollywood Institute is a for-profit institution operating four Florida campuses — Margate and Hollywood in Broward County, West Palm Beach in Palm Beach County, and Casselberry in Seminole County. All are licensed by Florida’s Commission for Independent Education and participate in federal student aid. Venue depends on your campus: Broward and Palm Beach campuses fall in the Southern District of Florida (Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach Divisions respectively), while Casselberry sits in Seminole County, in the Middle District of Florida, Orlando Division.

Everything here is a clock-hour credential, which changes what you are fighting for

The Institute’s programmes — barbering, cosmetology, nail technology, skin care, electrology, massage therapy and medical assisting — share one feature that should govern your whole approach. They are measured in hours, the state requires a specified number of them at a licensed school, and the school is the only body that can certify how many you completed. Your enrolment is therefore an asset denominated in hours, and a dismissal part-way through does not destroy the hours you earned; it puts them in dispute.

That is the single most useful thing to know, because it reframes the negotiation. Whatever else happens, ask for an accurate hour-by-hour transcript. Even if you never return to this school, those certified hours are what another licensed school will credit when you continue elsewhere, and the difference between a transcript that says “dismissed” and one that records 900 of 1,200 hours completed is the difference between starting again and finishing.

Massage therapy licensure runs through a document the school controls

This is the single most important thing for a dismissed massage therapy student to understand, and it is not obvious. Under section 480.033(4), Florida Statutes, a “board-approved massage therapy school” has to satisfy two separate regulators at once: it must meet the Board of Massage Therapy’s curriculum and training standards by rule, and it must be licensed by the Department of Education under chapter 1005. Both, not either.

Then rule 64B7-32.002, Florida Administrative Code, sets out how you prove you finished. You prove it either by appearing on a graduate list the board-approved school submits, or by an official transcript from that school — or, if the school has closed, from the custodian of its records. There is no third route. No portfolio, no affidavit, no accumulation of hours you can document yourself. If the school will not certify graduation, you cannot apply for the licence, and the disqualification is structural rather than disciplinary: nothing in chapter 480 or chapter 64B7 treats a dismissal as misconduct, but nothing in them lets you around the missing transcript either.

That reframes what a dismissal dispute actually is. It is a fight over a record entry that the school issues and the Board requires, which means transcript language, hour totals and completion coding are the substance of the negotiation, not the housekeeping afterwards. It also means a settlement that resolves money but leaves the transcript unchanged has given you very little.

Rule 64B7-32.003 is worth knowing about as well. It lets the Board revoke a school’s approval where the school drops its course of study below minimum standards, fails to require students to complete the course of study before graduating them, or breaches a standard applicable under its Department of Education licence. If the timing goes the wrong way — approval revoked while you are still enrolled — credits earned there may not count toward the Board’s requirements at all, and that is a chapter 1005 problem to raise with the Commission for Independent Education, not a Board problem.

Cosmetology, barbering and electrology have their own regulators

Barbering, cosmetology, nail technology and skin care are administered by the Board of Barbers and the Board of Cosmetology under chapters 476 and 477, Florida Statutes, and the hour requirements and licence routes for each are set out in more detail on the Florida cosmetology and barber school dismissal page. Electrology is separate again, licensed under chapter 478, Florida Statutes, which is worth knowing because a student who assumes the cosmetology rules apply to an electrology programme will look up the wrong requirements. Medical assisting is not a licensed profession in Florida at all — it is certified by national bodies rather than by the state — so a dismissal from that programme has materially lower stakes than a dismissal from any of the others, and should be handled proportionately.

A multi-campus school means checking which catalogue governs you

With four campuses under one brand, the policy that governs you is the one your campus published in the year you enrolled — not the current version on the shared website. If you transferred between campuses mid-programme, that is exactly the situation in which two catalogue editions can both plausibly apply, and the school will naturally rely on whichever suits it. Confirm in writing which campus holds your record and which catalogue edition it considers applicable, before you argue anything else.

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.

Cosmetology and barber school dismissals · Trade and vocational schools · 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 Hollywood Institute cases

What is the most important thing to ask for after a dismissal?

An accurate hour-by-hour transcript of what you completed. Every credential here is a clock-hour credential, and certified hours are what another licensed school will credit when you continue. A transcript recording 900 of 1,200 hours is worth far more to you than a refund.

Can I sit for the massage therapy examination if I did not graduate?

No. Rule 64B7-32.002 requires proof of graduation from a board-approved school, by graduate list or official transcript, and there is no alternative route. That is why the completion record, not the money, is what a massage therapy dispute is actually about.

Which regulator covers my programme?

Barbering and cosmetology, nail technology and skin care fall under chapters 476 and 477, administered by the Board of Barbers and the Board of Cosmetology. Massage therapy is chapter 480 and the Board of Massage Therapy. Electrology is chapter 478 — a separate scheme, so do not apply the cosmetology rules to it. Medical assisting is not state-licensed in Florida.

Does a medical assisting dismissal have the same consequences?

No, and it is worth knowing. Medical assisting is not a licensed profession in Florida; certification comes from national bodies rather than the state. So the credential does not depend on this school in the way a licensed one does, and the dispute is realistically about tuition and what was represented to you.

Which court covers my campus?

Margate and Hollywood are in Broward County, Southern District of Florida, Fort Lauderdale Division. West Palm Beach is in Palm Beach County, Southern District, West Palm Beach Division. Casselberry is in Seminole County, Middle District of Florida, Orlando Division. Check your enrolment agreement for an arbitration clause first.

I transferred between campuses. Which catalogue applies?

That is precisely the ambiguity to resolve in writing before arguing anything else, because the school will rely on whichever edition suits it. Ask which campus holds your record and which catalogue edition it considers applicable, and keep the answer.