Evolution Health Academy Student Defense Lawyer — Miami Gardens

Evolution Health Academy is a private nursing school in Miami Gardens whose 2025 first-time NCLEX results sat well below the statutory minimum, on a cohort large enough for the figure to be meaningful.

47.73% of 44 first-time candidates

The program passed 47.73% of 44 first-time candidates against a floor of 76.05% — twenty-one passes and twenty-three failures. More candidates failed than passed.

Under Fla. Stat. section 464.019(5)(a)1 a Florida nursing program’s first-time NCLEX passage rate must stay within 10 percentage points of the national average for comparable programs — in 2025 that floor was 76.05% for associate-degree programs and 77.17% for practical-nursing programs. Section 464.019(5)(a)2 puts a program two consecutive years below the floor at risk of probation and loss of approval, and section 464.019(5)(c) then obliges the program to disclose that probationary status in writing to its students and applicants — a failure to give that notice is an independent, statute-based misrepresentation theory against a school that enrolled a student while on probation. A single year below the floor is not probation, and the Board of Nursing publishes no probation roster — but the Department of Health’s licensing portal does publish a current status for each approved program, so it can be checked there as well as in the board’s minutes and orders. Every Florida program is tabulated on the Florida nursing program pass-rate page.

For a dismissed student that is the central fact. A program that fails more than half its first-time candidates is not well placed to argue that a dismissal reflected the student’s inability to reach a standard, and it has a clear institutional interest in not entering marginal candidates for the examination at all.

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 enrollment agreement, the catalog and the student and program 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. So the work is documentary: identify the exact promises the school made about process, and show which it did not keep.

Two further things matter at schools of this kind. Many enrollment 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 question 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 rather than regionally accredited, the CIE complaint route exists alongside any civil claim and is often the faster pressure point.

A school with no federal reporting footprint

Evolution Health Academy does not appear in the federal IPEDS directory, which means it is not a Title IV participant. Two practical consequences follow. First, the usual public data about enrollment, completion and outcomes does not exist for it, so the Board of Nursing pass-rate report is close to the only published performance measure — which makes it more important, not less. Second, the school is licensed by the Florida Commission for Independent Education, and the CIE complaint route sits alongside any civil claim; for a school outside the federal system it is often the more responsive lever.

Where an Evolution Health Academy case is filed

Miami Gardens is in Miami-Dade County, which 28 U.S.C. section 89(c) places in the Southern District of Florida, Miami Division — subject to any forum or arbitration term in the enrollment agreement.

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.

How Florida student dismissal cases work generally is set out on the Florida student defense page.

What Evolution Health Academy’s catalog says about grades, probation, and dismissal

The 2023 EHA Catalog, the newest edition on the school’s catalog page, ends enrollment through warning and probation, not a set number of failed courses.

• Passing floor. A C is 75 to 79 percent, and good standing requires a cumulative average of 75 percent, or a C (pages 20, 35). The printed scale skips 70 to 74 percent; D stops at 69.
• Warning, probation, dismissal. A student below standard gets a warning term, then one probation term; still falling short after that means dismissal, with written notice of each change (page 36). Page 37 caps probation at one “evaluation period,” a month in practical nursing and the ASN program, so the two passages run on different clocks.
• Repeats and the capstone. A repeated course counts at the higher grade, and there is no remedial or make-up work (page 37). The capstone, new in the 2023 edition, allows two attempts per subject at 75 percent, and a second miss fails the capstone (pages 62, 68).
• Time and withdrawals. Students get one and a half times the program length to finish (pages 53, 64). Dropping a course after the drop-add period but before the midterm earns a “W” that counts as attempted credit (page 49); the catalog is silent on later withdrawals.

Attendance and clinical rules at EHA that can end a program

Students must keep 80 percent attendance in class and clinical, and a student absent more than five consecutive school days without an approved leave “will be dismissed” (page 37).

• Three unexcused late arrivals (over five minutes) count as an absence (page 38).
• Falling below 80 percent brings one evaluation period of attendance probation. Ending it takes 80 percent attendance, a C or better, and a satisfactory instructor report; otherwise the student is dismissed unless the School Director documents a “special condition” (pages 38-39).
• A student sent home from clinical for uniform or hygiene problems is marked absent and gets a “U” for the day (pages 21-22).
• A student out of compliance with a clinical site’s requirements may have to sit out the semester if no other site is available, and one dismissed from a facility for misconduct may be administratively withdrawn from the course (pages 27-28).
• Discipline usually runs from verbal to written counseling to suspension or termination, but code-of-conduct violations skip the counseling (page 25).
• One leave of absence is allowed per program, up to 60 days, at the Program Director’s sole discretion (page 38).

Who decides at Evolution Health Academy, and how fast you must act

The School Director decides, and the only complaint deadline the catalog sets is two weeks for a grade dispute. A dismissed student gets a letter giving the date and reason and may appeal “through the grievance procedure,” which describes no hearing, committee, or rule on advisors or attorneys (pages 39-40).

• Grades: the two weeks run from the grade posting date; start with the instructor, then the School Director.
• Other complaints: submit them in writing to “the Administration.” The School Director decides within seven days of receipt, and written complaints are to be resolved, in writing, within 10 days.
• Outside the school: once that procedure is exhausted, the catalog points to the Commission for Independent Education, 325 West Gaines Street, Suite 1414, Tallahassee, toll-free (888) 224-6684 (page 40).

The probation section cites a “student appeals procedure” the catalog never sets out (page 37). A separate chain-of-command rule sends course problems from instructor to Department Chairperson to “Chief Executing Officer” and turns back anyone who skips a step (page 23). Page 49 gives dismissal power to the Chief Executive Officer and, lines later, the School Director; neither title is on the 2023 staff list (page 10).

On readmission, a student terminated for unsatisfactory progress may reenroll in a later program six months afterward (page 37), and one terminated for conduct may petition the School Director in writing, at the school’s sole discretion (page 42). The ASN program allows at most three re-enrollments (page 20).

Harassment complaints and disability accommodations at EHA

Neither the catalog nor the school’s website names a Title IX coordinator or publishes a sexual-misconduct grievance procedure. In two sentences, the catalog forbids sexual harassment and tells a student who feels discriminated against to complain to the School Director or Program Director, with no form, investigation steps, or timeline (page 40).

Accommodations get one sentence: the school “will reasonably accommodate” students with disabilities (page 41). No office, request process, documentation standard, or appeal is named, leaving only the general grievance procedure for a dispute. A student who misses “published technical/performance standards” may be asked to withdraw (page 25), yet the catalog contains no such standards. It excuses physician-documented illness (page 38) but never says whether excused absences count against the 80 percent minimum.

The enrollment agreement, and where EHA’s own documents disagree

The only enrollment agreement the school posts, a three-page Student Enrollment Agreement filed as a 2021 form, has no arbitration, mediation, or forum clause. It makes the agreement plus the catalog the contract and lets the Chief Executive Officer dismiss for insufficient progress, nonpayment, or rule violations. NCLEX remediation courses use a separate agreement the site does not link.

• Missing documents. The catalog ties minimum scores to a “Nursing Handbook” and course syllabi (page 25). Neither is posted.
• Enrollment status. The FAQ says no new practical nursing or ASN students are being accepted and the ASN program page says enrollment is closed, yet the admission pages for both programs advertise a January 2025 cohort.
• Campus and license. The site gives one address: 18350 NW 2nd Avenue, Suite 402, Miami Gardens. The Commission’s online school search, checked in September 2026, shows that address and a “Provisional” license status, with licensure dating to December 7, 2017.

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:

• First Coast Technical College Dismissal
• Florida Public Safety Institute
• Florida Technical College Dismissal
• Fort Myers Technical College Dismissal
• Fortis College and Fortis Institute Florida
• Fred K. Marchman Technical College Dismissal

Common questions about Evolution Health Academy cases

What was Evolution Health Academy’s pass rate?

47.73% of 44 first-time candidates in 2025 — twenty-one passes and twenty-three failures — against a statutory floor of 76.05%. More candidates failed than passed.

The school is not in federal databases. Why does that matter?

It is not a Title IV participant, so the usual public data on enrollment and outcomes does not exist. That makes the Board of Nursing pass-rate report close to the only published performance measure, and it puts more weight on the Commission for Independent Education complaint route.

Does Florida’s public-college discipline statute apply?

No. Fla. Stat. section 1006.60(3) applies to public colleges. This is a private school, so the enrollment agreement and handbooks govern as a contract, under Sharick v. Southeastern University of the Health Sciences.

Which court covers a Miami case?

The Southern District of Florida, Miami Division. Miami-Dade County is in the Southern District under 28 U.S.C. section 89(c) — subject to any forum-selection or arbitration clause.

How long does an Evolution Health Academy student have to challenge a grade or a dismissal?

The 2023 EHA Catalog requires a grade dispute within two weeks of the grade posting date, raised first with the instructor and then with the School Director. A dismissed student appeals through the same grievance procedure, where a written complaint goes to the administration and the School Director is to decide within seven days of receiving it. The catalog sets no filing deadline for a dismissal appeal, so a prompt written grievance, with a copy kept, is the safer course.

Can a student dismissed from Evolution Health Academy re-enroll later?

It depends on why enrollment ended. Under the 2023 catalog, a student terminated for unsatisfactory progress may reenroll in a later program six months after termination, a student terminated for conduct may petition the School Director in writing (the school decides at its sole discretion), and a student dismissed for chemical impairment may petition the Dean of the School of Nursing with proof of completing an intervention program. The ASN program allows no more than three re-enrollments.