Chamberlain University (Illinois campuses): Student Discipline, Dismissal & Federal Court

How do student discipline and dismissal cases work at Chamberlain?

Chamberlain University is a private, for-profit university owned by Covista, the publicly traded education company formerly named Adtalem Global Education, and run from national offices in Chicago. It teaches nursing on campuses across the country and online; its Illinois campuses are in Addison (DuPage County), Chicago (Cook County) and Tinley Park. The Higher Learning Commission accredits the University and the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education accredits its BSN, MSN and DNP programs. Every campus works from the same national Academic Catalog and College of Nursing Student Handbook, and its BSN dismissal rule is mechanical: two unsuccessful nursing courses, in any combination, mean dismissal — and if the appeal for reinstatement fails, the Handbook says you cannot “resume studies, reapply or apply to the same program at another Chamberlain University location.”

Chamberlain University is a private institution. There is no state action, so there is no constitutional due process claim, and arguing one wastes an appeal. The theory is contract: Illinois holds that a college and its students have a contractual relationship whose terms come from the catalog and the handbook — Raethz v. Aurora University, 346 Ill. App. 3d 728 (2004), restated by the Fourth District in Urso v. Bradley University, 2023 IL App (4th) 230165 — while adding that the relationship “is unique and cannot be strictly categorized or characterized in purely contractual terms.”

The limit is the standard of review, and it decides most of these cases before anyone reaches the facts. A student has a remedy for an adverse academic decision only if it was made arbitrarily, capriciously, or in bad faith. Frederick v. Northwestern University Dental School, 247 Ill. App. 3d 464 (1993), puts it bluntly — courts have been loath to review, much less overturn, academic dismissals — and Bosch v. NorthShore University Health System, 2019 IL App (1st) 190070, holds that a school which departs somewhat from its handbook still wins unless the departure was material. The federal courts in Chicago apply the same test: in Doe v. Columbia College Chicago, 933 F.3d 849 (7th Cir. 2019), the Seventh Circuit affirmed dismissal of a student’s contract claim where the college had investigated and reasoned its way to a decision, and in Gash v. Rosalind Franklin University, 117 F.4th 957 (7th Cir. 2024), it held that calling a process arbitrary or predetermined, without specific facts, is not enough. What survives is specific: in Liu v. Northwestern University, 78 F. Supp. 3d 839 (N.D. Ill. 2015), a former law student’s claim went forward where the school imposed what amounted to an integrity charge while denying her the handbook procedure for contesting one. Federal law does not care that the school is private: Title IX, Title VI and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act apply because it takes federal funds, and the ADA applies to it as a place of public accommodation.

A federal claim arising at Chamberlain University’s Illinois campuses is filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois — DuPage County (the Addison campus) and Cook County (the Chicago campus) sit in its Eastern Division under 28 U.S.C. § 93(a), and the statute fixes the places of holding court for that division at Chicago and Wheaton. I am a member of the general bar of that court, admitted on my Florida license under its Local Rule 83.10, which opens the general bar to an attorney in good standing before the highest court of any state. That means a Title IX, Section 504 or ADA complaint for a Chamberlain student is one I file and litigate under my own name, with no pro hac vice motion. The Northern District abrogated its local-counsel designation rule in July 2023, so a member of its bar with no office in the district no longer has to designate local counsel. One limit, stated plainly: the court keeps a separate trial bar, and under Local Rule 83.12 a general-bar member who is not on it — that is me — appears alone in everything except testimonial proceedings, meaning evidentiary hearings and trial, where a trial-bar member must sit as advisor unless the judge grants the rule’s narrow waiver.

How BSN students get dismissed

The catalog’s Standards of Academic Progress require a cumulative average of 2.0; a semester below that brings an academic and financial aid warning, and two consecutive semesters below it mean dismissal and loss of Title IV eligibility. Attempting more than one and a half times your program’s credits, or falling below the required pace twice, does the same. Warning is available once: “A student may be placed on academic warning only once while enrolled in any Chamberlain program.”

The Additional Academic Standards, checked after every session, are stricter. An undergraduate is dismissed for two unsuccessful attempts (“WF” or “F”) in any combination of nursing courses, or three unsuccessful attempts in any combination of science courses (a D, WF or F) and nursing courses. The grading rules feed that count directly. Clinical and lab components are graded Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory, and an Unsatisfactory means a failing grade for the whole course; pre-licensure nursing courses require a 76 percent weighted average on the core assignments, with no extra credit and no curve; and each clinical course has a medication calculation exam you must pass within three attempts by the end of Week 2. The catalog adds that “One (1) absence from a clinical learning experience could result in a course failure if makeup is not available and/or not approved.”

The labels matter. The catalog’s footnotes record a change in November 2024: before then, a failed clinical or lab component or a third failed medication calculation exam was recorded as a “WF”; now a failed clinical component produces a failing grade, while a third failed medication exam produces a “W” — and a W is not one of the grades the two-strike rule counts. Before accepting that you have two strikes, check what each grade is and when it was recorded.

The reinstatement appeal: no published deadline, one chance

The Handbook’s Appeal of Academic Dismissal requires “rare and extenuating circumstances” that contributed to the failure, have since been overcome, and can be documented. Written notice of dismissal must issue first, you may not be enrolled while the appeal is pending, and the Handbook tells students not to submit until the circumstances are resolved — it publishes no deadline in days. The Appeal for Reinstatement form needs verifiable documentation, an account of how the problem was overcome and “A realistic plan” for returning to good standing. An appeal committee reviews it alongside your academic history and tutoring notes, and any earlier appeals. If it is denied, one more appeal goes to the pre-licensure program administrator, and that decision is final.

A student who is reinstated returns on financial aid probation, may face a registration hold until added requirements are met, and is dismissed a second time — without further Title IV eligibility — if the academic plan is not met. Because the denial is terminal across every Chamberlain location, a nursing school dismissal here should be appealed once, completely, with the documents attached. Two smaller windows also matter: a Request for Review of a Grade is due within three business days of the grade’s posting, and the Handbook warns that review “may result in the grade increasing, decreasing or staying the same”; an appeal of other academic decisions may rest on new evidence, procedural irregularity, or a decision “not reasonable based on the evidence compiled,” with no deadline published.

Clinical removal, professionalism and academic integrity

In clinical settings the student is “a guest of the sponsoring agency,” and failing the Handbook’s Expected Student Behaviors “may result in an unsatisfactory performance rating, removal from the clinical/practicum site, failure of the clinical/practicum and/or failure of the course.” In the pre-licensure clinical setting, unmet expectations lead to a clinical learning contract, and failing the contract means an Unsatisfactory. The sharper sentence is this one: “students may be immediately dismissed from the program when failure to fulfill the below expectations has been determined, by an institutional committee, to rise to the level of egregious” — a route to dismissal that bypasses the two-strike count. See clinical rotation removal.

Professional conduct complaints go to a conduct administrator, who may resolve, dismiss, counsel or refer them. A student who denies the charges gets a review by the Professional Review Committee — faculty and staff, “No students serve on the Committee” — which decides on written statements and documents whether “it is more likely than not that a violation occurred” and imposes sanctions up to expulsion. You may submit a statement and documents, learn the members’ names, propose questions for the committee to ask the people it interviews, and review the written information first. Chamberlain publishes no advisor or attorney rule for this process, which is written rather than live. The appeal goes to the program administrator within five (5) business days of the notification of the decision being sent, on new evidence, procedural irregularity or an inappropriate sanction, and is final.

For academic integrity, the instructor decides on the same more-likely-than-not standard and may impose anything up to course failure; suspension, expulsion or degree revocation requires referral to a Hearing Panel that reviews written submissions and proceeds even if you do not respond. Prior violations count at sanction. The appeal is due within five business days of the date written notice was provided. Proxy testing goes to a National Conduct Review Committee, and a first finding means course failure with suspension of up to three semesters. The testing rules are strict: you may not look away from the screen, leave the webcam’s view or read questions aloud without an accommodation, and you may be required to share log files from your own device.

The NCLEX link runs through the NR-452/NR-453 Capstone Course. A readiness exam in Week 7 sets a benchmark; students who miss it receive an Incomplete and a structured remediation program, and if readiness is not reached in the remediation period they “may be required to retake” the capstone. Two or more academic integrity sanctions during the program may cost you the option of an Incomplete with remote remediation at that stage.

Sexual misconduct under Chamberlain’s Title IX policy

For sexual misconduct, the federal rule is the 2020 Title IX regulation: the 2024 rule was vacated nationwide on January 9, 2025, in Tennessee v. Cardona, and on September 29, 2026 the Department of Education formally repealed it and restored the pre-2024 text (91 Fed. Reg. 61,308). And as Chamberlain’s own policy reflects, the 2020 regulation requires postsecondary institutions to hold a live hearing at which each party’s advisor conducts cross-examination. Chamberlain’s Title IX Policy Prohibiting Sexual Harassment, posted in September 2026, says the advisor “may be any person, including an attorney,” provides one free if you have none, and lets the advisor question at the live hearing while otherwise not speaking for you. The standard is preponderance of the evidence. An appeal is due “within ten (10) calendar days following delivery of the Notice of Outcome,” on procedural irregularity, new evidence, bias, the sufficiency of the evidence, or a disproportionate sanction; the Appellate Authority’s decision is final. An Illinois addendum applies the state’s sexual-violence statute to the Illinois campuses, and the Handbook names a Confidential Advisor. See Title IX appeals.

What a student defense lawyer can do here

Most of the value is early and quiet. It is reading Chamberlain’s policy against what the University actually did and finding the gap; writing the response or the appeal so it argues the grounds the policy recognizes rather than the ones that feel most unfair; preserving the federal issues — Title IX, Section 504 and the ADA, FERPA — so they are in the record if the case ever leaves campus; and identifying comparators, because a sanction far outside what similar cases drew is one of the few arguments that reliably moves a decision-maker.

At Chamberlain two moves are specific. First, audit the dismissal arithmetic: list every nursing and science grade, its label (F, WF, W, U) and its date against the catalog version in force when it was recorded, because the two-strike rule counts only some of them. Second, treat the written statement to the Professional Review Committee or the Hearing Panel as the hearing — there is no other — and build the reinstatement appeal as the only one you will get, since a denial forecloses the program at every location.

What a lawyer cannot do is turn a campus hearing into a trial. The rules of evidence do not apply, there is no discovery, and the school decides its own case at first instance. That is exactly why the written record built during the campus process is the whole ballgame: by the time a court looks at it, the record is closed.

The one Illinois statute that gives you procedure

Illinois has no general statute setting notice periods, hearing formats, standards of proof or appeal rights for college students. The Illinois School Code, 105 ILCS 5, has a detailed suspension and expulsion scheme, and it applies to elementary and secondary schools, not here. The exception is the Preventing Sexual Violence in Higher Education Act, 110 ILCS 155, and it is a real one. It reaches every higher education institution in the state — public universities, community colleges, and private not-for-profit and for-profit institutions alike — and it requires timely written notice of the allegations to all parties, an investigation that is adequate, reliable and impartial, written notice of the outcome, and appeal rights. It requires the school to make confidential advisors available, trained to a statutory standard and kept separate from the people deciding the case. Both parties are entitled to an advisor of their choice, and that advisor may be an attorney — although the institution may limit how far an attorney-advisor participates in a hearing, which is why Chamberlain’s own rule on that, set out above, still governs what your lawyer may do in the room. The standard of proof is preponderance of the evidence, applied the same way to both sides.

What to do first

1. Get the decision in writing and diary the clock. Conduct and integrity appeals run five business days from the notice; a grade review, three business days from posting; a Title IX appeal, ten calendar days from delivery.
2. Pull your full grade history and mark each nursing and science grade with its letter and date before conceding a dismissal count.
3. Save the Academic Catalog and the 2026–2027 College of Nursing Student Handbook as they stood when each event happened. Both are updated online, and the online versions supersede earlier ones.
4. Ask for the evidence before you write. For a proctoring or integrity flag, request the recording, the logs and the report the decision-maker will see.
5. Raise any disability through the Office of Student Disability Services now, so the record shows the request before the next evaluation. See Section 504 and ADA accommodations, and the Illinois student defense hub for how the federal courts fit in.

One honest caveat about geography. Illinois has three federal districts. I am admitted to two of them, the Northern and the Southern. A federal claim arising at a school in Springfield, Peoria, Champaign-Urbana or the Quad Cities falls in the Central District; I am not a member of that bar, and those matters I handle with local counsel in that district or by pro hac vice admission. Appeals from the Northern District go to the Seventh Circuit, which keeps its own bar; my appellate admission is in the Eleventh. I say so before a retainer rather than after.

Where I am licensed. I am licensed to practice law in Florida. I am admitted to the bars of the U.S. District Courts for the Southern, Middle and Northern Districts of Florida, the District of Colorado, the Northern and Southern Districts of Illinois, the District of Nebraska, the District of New Mexico, and the Western District of Wisconsin, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Federal court admission is not a license to practice the law of the state in which the court sits. I am not licensed in Illinois and do not advise on Illinois state law or appear in Illinois state court.

The federal money on the line at Chamberlain

Chamberlain University students and families, across all of its campuses, took on $399.7 million in federal Direct Loans in the 2025–26 award year — including $6.2 million borrowed by 378 parents through Parent PLUS.

Every dollar of it rides on academic standing. A dismissal, a failed Satisfactory Academic Progress evaluation, or a mid-term withdrawal sets off federal rules that decide whether aid continues, whether money already disbursed has to go back, and — under the borrowing caps in effect since July 1, 2026 — whether a student who leaves can still finance a return. The academic fight and the financial aid fight are the same fight, and the windows are short. How those rules work: SAP appeals and academic dismissal.

Source: U.S. Department of Education, Federal Student Aid Data Center, Direct Loan volume by school, award year 2025–26 (cumulative through June 30, 2026). Institution-wide federal Direct Loan totals, all campuses.

Other schools in the Northern District of Illinois

Every school writes its own dismissal, appeal and conduct rules, and the deadlines are rarely the same from one campus to the next. These pages set out the procedure at other schools in the Northern District of Illinois:

• The Chicago School (Chicago campus)
• Chicago State University
• Chicago Theological Seminary
• Chicago-Kent College of Law, Illinois Institute of Technology
• Columbia College Chicago
• Concordia University Chicago

Common questions about Chamberlain student cases

How many failed nursing courses before Chamberlain dismisses you?

Two. An undergraduate is dismissed after two unsuccessful attempts, a WF or an F, in any combination of nursing courses, or three in any combination of science and nursing courses. A failed clinical or lab component fails the whole course. Since November 2024, though, a third failed medication calculation exam is recorded as a W, which the rule does not count, so check every grade’s label and date first.

Is there a deadline to appeal an academic dismissal at Chamberlain?

The Handbook publishes none. You need written notice of dismissal first, you cannot be enrolled while the appeal is pending, and you are told not to file until the circumstances behind the poor performance are resolved. The appeal needs documented, rare and extenuating circumstances and a realistic plan. If both levels deny it, you cannot reapply to the same program at any Chamberlain location.

Can I bring a lawyer to a Chamberlain conduct hearing?

In a Title IX case, yes: your advisor “may be any person, including an attorney,” and conducts the questioning at the live hearing. Professional conduct and academic integrity cases are decided on written submissions, and Chamberlain publishes no advisor or attorney rule for them. A lawyer can still help you write the statement and the appeal, which in those cases is the entire record.

What standard of proof does Chamberlain use?

More likely than not. The Professional Review Committee, instructors and Hearing Panels in academic integrity cases, and the National Conduct Review Committee in proxy-testing cases all decide whether it is “more likely than not” that a violation occurred. The Title IX policy uses preponderance of the evidence, which is the same test.

What happens if I miss the NCLEX readiness benchmark in my capstone?

You receive an Incomplete and start a structured remediation program in NR-452 or NR-453. Once you reach the benchmark you are treated as ready to test; if you do not reach it within the remediation period, you may be required to retake the capstone. Two or more academic integrity sanctions during the program may cost you the option of an Incomplete with remote remediation.

Can Chamberlain remove me from my clinical site?

Yes. Failing the Expected Student Behaviors can mean an unsatisfactory rating, removal from the site, and failure of the clinical and the course. In the pre-licensure setting, unmet expectations lead to a clinical learning contract, and failing the contract means an Unsatisfactory, which fails the course. If an institutional committee finds the conduct egregious, the Handbook allows immediate dismissal from the program.