City College Closed — Student Rights Lawyer | Florida

City College has closed. The Florida for-profit announced on 19 July 2024 that it would stop enrolling students that autumn and teach out those already enrolled. Its Miami campus had closed on 1 April 2023 and Gainesville on 15 August 2023; Hollywood and Altamonte Springs were the two still running when the announcement came. Students described being blindsided.

If you were enrolled, you have not run out of options. A closed school still owes you your records, there is a federal route to cancelling your loans outright, and the contract you signed did not disappear when the company did. What follows is what actually applies.

The nursing programme’s last cohort failed at a rate worth knowing about

City College’s nursing students who sat the NCLEX in 2025 — the teach-out cohort — passed at 33.33% on 30 first-time candidates. Ten passed and twenty failed, against a statutory floor of 76.05% under Fla. Stat. section 464.019(5)(a)1. Two candidates in three did not pass.

That figure matters to a former student for a specific reason. A teach-out is supposed to give students a reasonable opportunity to finish what they paid for. A cohort passing at a third of the statutory minimum is evidence about the quality of what was actually delivered, and it is documented by the Board of Nursing rather than by anyone’s recollection. The full table is on the Florida nursing programme pass-rate page.

Getting your transcript when the school no longer exists

Fla. Stat. section 1005.36(2) required City College’s owners, directors and administrators to notify the Commission for Independent Education in writing at least 30 days before closing, and to organise an orderly closure — which the statute defines as at least providing for the completion of training of its students, on a plan the Commission must approve. Failing to give that notice, or failing to organise the closure and train-out, is a second-degree misdemeanour.

Where a school has ceased operating without providing proper access to records, section 1005.36(3) lets the Commission require the institution to convey all student records to the Commission or to a location it designates, and the Commission then makes copies available to the student or to whomever the student designates. So the practical step is to ask the Commission for Independent Education, not the school. The same subsection allows civil penalties up to $10,000 against any owner, director or administrator who knowingly destroys, abandons or fails to convey or safeguard records — useful leverage if records have gone missing.

The Student Protection Fund, and what it is not

Fla. Stat. section 1005.37 establishes a fee-supported Student Protection Fund to complete the training of a student enrolled at a licensed nonpublic school that terminates a programme or ceases operation before the student finishes. It is administered by the Commission and held in the Institutional Assessment Trust Fund under section 1010.83.

Two limits are worth being blunt about. It is not a tuition refund scheme — its purpose is to fund finishing the programme somewhere else. And it is funded entirely by fees assessed on licensed schools: section 1005.37(4) says it may not be funded by public money, and the Commission cannot pay out more than the assessments it actually received. So the fund is real but finite, which is a reason to make a claim early rather than late. Commission staff are required to notify the Commission immediately on learning of a closure that could expose the fund.

Cancelling the federal loans outright

This is usually the most valuable remedy and the most often missed. Under 34 C.F.R. section 685.214, a Direct Loan borrower qualifies for a closed school discharge if they did not complete the programme because the school closed while they were enrolled, or they withdrew not more than 180 days before it closed. The mechanics that matter here:

The Secretary may extend the 180-day window for exceptional circumstances — and section 685.214(h)(8) names, as one of them, a school failing to perform the material terms of its teach-out plan so that the student had no reasonable opportunity to finish. If City College’s teach-out did not deliver, that is the provision to point at.
Completing your programme through an approved teach-out means you are not eligible.
But if you accepted a teach-out and did not complete it, discharge follows one year after your last date of attendance in it.
There is an automatic discharge: where the Department already holds the information showing you qualify and did not finish elsewhere, it discharges the loan one year after the closure date with no application at all.
A discharge is not just a pause. It wipes past and present repayment obligations, entitles you to be repaid amounts you already paid, restores your Title IV eligibility, and requires the adverse credit history to be deleted.

The contract claim survived the company

Students often assume a closed business cannot be sued. Under Fla. Stat. section 607.1405, a dissolved Florida corporation continues to exist for the purpose of winding up, and that expressly includes discharging or making provision for its liabilities. Dissolution does not prevent a proceeding being commenced against the corporation in its corporate name, and does not abate one already pending. If the directors or officers are unwilling, unable or untraceable, the circuit court can appoint a trustee, custodian or receiver over the corporation’s property.

There is a trap. In a judicial dissolution, section 607.1433(3) lets the court require creditors — which includes students with contract claims — to file proofs of claim by a date the court sets, not less than four months out. Miss it and you can be barred from sharing in the distribution of assets. So the question is not only whether you have a claim; it is whether a proceeding is already running that has a deadline in it.

A failed teach-out is therefore three things at once: a possible second-degree misdemeanour by the officers under section 1005.36, a breach of the enrolment agreement that survives dissolution, and an exceptional circumstance that widens federal discharge eligibility.

What can a student defense lawyer do here?

Get your records out — through the Commission for Independent Education if the school will not produce them.
Work out which discharge route fits: enrolled at closure, withdrew inside 180 days, accepted-but-did-not-finish a teach-out, or automatic.
Document what the teach-out promised against what it delivered, because that is what widens the window.
Check whether a dissolution proceeding is running and whether a proof-of-claim deadline is already ticking.
Make the Student Protection Fund claim early, while assessments remain.

How Florida student dismissal and closure cases work more generally is set out on the Florida student defence page.

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 City College cases

Is City College still open?

No. City College announced on 19 July 2024 that it would stop enrolling students that autumn and teach out those already enrolled. Its Miami campus closed on 1 April 2023 and Gainesville on 15 August 2023; Hollywood and Altamonte Springs were the last two operating.

How do I get my transcript from a closed Florida college?

Ask the Commission for Independent Education rather than the school. Under Fla. Stat. section 1005.36(3), where a school ceased operating without providing proper access to records, the Commission can require all student records to be conveyed to it and then makes copies available to the student or the student’s designee.

Can I get my federal student loans cancelled?

Possibly in full. Under 34 C.F.R. section 685.214 a Direct Loan borrower qualifies for closed school discharge if the school closed while they were enrolled, or they withdrew within 180 days before closure. Discharge cancels past and present repayment obligations, entitles you to reimbursement of what you already paid, restores Title IV eligibility and requires adverse credit history to be deleted.

I finished through a teach-out. Does that disqualify me?

Completing the programme through an approved teach-out does disqualify you from closed school discharge. But if you accepted a teach-out and did not complete it, discharge follows one year after your last date of attendance in it — and if the school failed to perform the material terms of the teach-out, that is an exceptional circumstance that can extend the 180-day window for others.

Does the Student Protection Fund refund my tuition?

No. Fla. Stat. section 1005.37 funds completing your training elsewhere, not a cash refund. It is also funded entirely by fees from licensed schools, and the Commission cannot pay out more than the assessments it actually received — so claim early.

Can I still sue a school that no longer exists?

Yes. Under Fla. Stat. section 607.1405 a dissolved Florida corporation continues to exist for winding up, including discharging its liabilities, and dissolution does not prevent a proceeding being brought against it in its corporate name. Watch for a proof-of-claim deadline if a judicial dissolution is running.