Ana G. Méndez University Florida Student Defense

Ana G. Méndez University is a private non-profit institution operating Florida campuses in Orlando, in Orange County, and in the Tampa Bay area. It is part of a Puerto Rico–based university system, is licensed to operate in Florida, and participates in federal student aid. It offers programs at undergraduate and graduate level. Federal disputes involving the Orlando campus go to the Middle District of Florida, Orlando Division; Tampa Bay matters go to the Tampa Division under Local Rule 1.04(a).

Which campus you attended decides more than you would expect

The campuses are administered together but they are not interchangeable for your purposes. They sit in different court divisions, and — importantly — the Board of Nursing keeps their nursing records separately. In the 2025 reporting year the Board lists an Orlando baccalaureate nursing entry with a single first-time candidate who did not pass, and a Tampa Bay associate degree entry with seven first-time candidates of whom six passed, 85.71% against a 76.05% associate-degree benchmark.

Neither figure should be used as a pass rate. One candidate is not a rate, and describing an Orlando program as “nought per cent” on the strength of one person would be indefensible. Seven is also small. Take both entries as evidence that these are new or small nursing programs rather than as measures of quality. The reason to know them at all is that they tell you which program record the Board actually holds for your campus, and a complaint that cites the wrong campus is easily deflected.

Bilingual and dual-language delivery creates its own set of issues

This system is known for delivering instruction in a bilingual or dual-language format, and that generates disputes I see rarely elsewhere. Two are worth naming. First, if a course, an assessment or a clinical placement was advertised as available in a particular language of instruction and delivered otherwise, that is a term of the contract, not a preference — the catalog description of the program is part of what you enrolled on, and a material departure from it is the kind of deviation Florida contract analysis reaches. Second, where an assessment of your competence turned on written or spoken English, the question of whether the assessment measured clinical or academic competence or measured language becomes a real one, and it is worth documenting at the time rather than raising for the first time on appeal.

Separately, if you have a documented disability and requested accommodations, section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act applies to this institution because it receives federal financial assistance, and Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act applies to it as a private place of public accommodation. An accommodation request that was ignored, delayed past the point of usefulness, or granted on paper but not implemented in the clinical setting is a distinct claim that runs alongside the contract argument, and it has its own complaint route to the Office for Civil Rights.

Graduate and professional students are in a different position from undergraduates

Two things change once the program is a master’s, a doctorate or a professional credential. The first is that the decision is usually made by a small number of people who all know each other and know you — a program director, a committee chair, one or two faculty. That concentration cuts both ways. It means the record is short and often informal, which makes an inconsistency easy to find; it also means a personal conflict can drive an outcome that is then written up in academic language, and untangling the two is most of the work.

The second is that the sunk cost is enormous and largely non-transferable. Coursework toward a specific degree, a completed comprehensive exam, an approved prospectus, a half-finished thesis, an internship or practicum placement secured through the program — very little of that moves to another institution. That is why Sharick v. Southeastern University of the Health Sciences, 780 So. 2d 136 (Fla. 3d DCA 2000), matters more at this level than any other Florida authority. Sharick allowed a dismissed student to recover the lost value of the degree itself, not merely the tuition paid, where the dismissal breached the institution’s own contract with him. The remedy is real, and its existence is often the only thing that makes a school negotiate.

What Florida courts will not do is second-guess an academic judgment they consider genuinely academic. The productive line of attack is almost never “the committee was wrong about my work.” It is that the institution did not follow its own published procedure — the notice it promised, the committee composition it specified, the review layer it advertised, the timeline in its own handbook. Those are contract terms, and they are the terms a court will read.

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 enrollment agreement, the catalog 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 catalog 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 program 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 program and the license, 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.

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.

Related pages

Florida nursing program NCLEX pass rates, school by school · Florida student defense

Other Florida universities

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 universities:

• Atlantis University Miami
• Ave Maria University
• Barry University
• Chamberlain University Florida
• Edward Waters University
• Everglades University

Common questions about Ana G. Méndez University cases

What were the 2025 NCLEX results at the Florida campuses?

The Board lists the Orlando baccalaureate program with one first-time candidate who did not pass, and the Tampa Bay associate degree program with seven first-time candidates of whom six passed, 85.71%. Neither should be quoted as a pass rate — one candidate is not a rate, and seven is a very small cohort.

Does it matter which campus I attended?

Yes, in two concrete ways. The Board of Nursing keeps campus records separately, so your program record belongs to one campus. And venue differs: Orange County is in the Middle District of Florida, Orlando Division, while the Tampa Bay area falls in the Tampa Division under Local Rule 1.04(a).

My program was advertised as bilingual but was not delivered that way. Is that actionable?

It can be. The catalog description of a program forms part of what you contracted for, so a material departure from an advertised language of instruction is a contract question rather than a matter of preference. Document it while it is happening, in writing to the program, rather than raising it for the first time in an appeal.

I was assessed partly on my English rather than my clinical skill. What can I do?

Raise it contemporaneously and in writing, and be specific about which assessment and which criterion. The question is whether the assessment measured the competence it was supposed to measure. Raised at the time it is a live issue; raised months later for the first time it looks like a reaction to the outcome.

Do disability accommodations apply at a private university?

Yes. Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act applies because the institution receives federal financial assistance, and Title III of the ADA applies to it as a private place of public accommodation. An accommodation granted on paper but not implemented in clinical placement is a real claim, and it has its own route to the Office for Civil Rights alongside any contract argument.

I am a graduate student. Is my position different?

Yes. There is usually less procedure, a smaller number of decision-makers, and far more sunk cost that does not transfer. Sharick allows recovery of the lost value of the degree itself where the dismissal breached the institution’s contract, which matters more at graduate level than anywhere else. The winning argument is still procedural rather than a disagreement with academic judgment.