First Coast Technical College Dismissal Lawyer

First Coast Technical College in St. Augustine is operated by the St. Johns County School District, and it ran one of the larger district nursing cohorts in the state in 2025.

Above the statutory floor in 2025

The practical-nursing program passed 89.47% of 57 first-time candidates in 2025 against a 77.17% floor under Fla. Stat. section 464.019(5)(a)1, clearing it by about 12.3 points. A result above the line removes a set of arguments the college might otherwise make: it cannot attribute a dismissal to an unprepared cohort, and it is under no statutory pressure to protect a marginal pass rate. The question narrows to whether it followed its own published progression and conduct rules — and whether the school board, rather than the college, made the final decision.

The statute that protects state college students does not cover you

Fla. Stat. section 1006.60 — five business days’ advance written notice of the charges, access to inculpatory and exculpatory information, an impartial hearing officer — applies by its own terms to Florida College System institutions and state universities. A district technical college is neither: it is a public school operated by a district school board under sections 1001.44 and 1003.02. Sections 1006.61, 1006.62 and 1002.21 are limited the same way. So a student here gets none of the statutory protections a student at the state college down the road gets.

What you have instead is constitutional, and the Eleventh Circuit has addressed this exact setting. Castle v. Appalachian Technical College, 631 F.3d 1194 (11th Cir. 2011) — a nursing student at a public technical college — proceeded on the footing that the student held a property interest in continued enrollment that could not be taken without due process, and recorded that denying a pre-suspension hearing is itself a violation. Wells v. Columbus Technical College, 510 F. App’x 893 (11th Cir. 2013), applied Goss v. Lopez, 419 U.S. 565 (1975), to a technical college suspension. Goss requires notice and an opportunity to respond before the sanction takes effect.

If the college calls the dismissal academic, Board of Curators v. Horowitz, 435 U.S. 78 (1978), removes the hearing requirement — but only where the institution evaluated the student carefully and deliberately and kept them informed of the deficiency and of the risk of dismissal. A competency-based dismissal is usually labeled academic for that reason, which is why the label is worth contesting.

The board has to decide, and often has not

Because no statute writes a conduct code for adult career-center students — section 1006.07(2) is written for elementary and middle and high schools — the governing document is the district school board’s own rules, adopted under section 1001.41(2) and section 1003.02(1)(c), which expressly covers adult and career education programs. Get the board policy, not only the college handbook.

And the decisive procedural point: per Fla. Att’y Gen. Op. 2001-05, a board may delegate the evidentiary hearing to a qualified hearing officer, but the final expulsion decision must be made by the board itself and cannot be delegated. In practice these removals are frequently handled inside the college by a director or a program committee and the board never votes. Where that happened there is a structural defect to raise that does not require relitigating the facts.

A school board’s final expulsion order is reviewed by appeal to a Florida District Court of Appeal under Fla. Stat. section 120.68. The notice of appeal is due to the board’s clerk within 30 days of rendition, and rendition happens only when the written order is filed with that clerk. The appellate court asks whether the board’s findings rest on competent substantial evidence in the hearing record, whether a material procedural error impaired the fairness of the proceeding, and whether the board misread the law — it does not reweigh evidence, so the record has to be built inside the board process.

Where a case is filed

St. Augustine is in St. Johns County, which puts a federal claim in the Middle District of Florida, Jacksonville Division. Review of a final expulsion order goes to the Florida District Court of Appeal for the appellate district where the school board has its headquarters, or where a party lives.

What can a student defense lawyer do here?

• Obtain the district school board policy as well as the college handbook, and hold the college to whichever is more demanding.
• Establish whether the school board itself decided the expulsion, or whether the college did it alone.
• Contest the academic-versus-disciplinary characterization, because it sets how much process was owed.
• Test the Horowitz minimum: was the deficiency identified in writing, and was the student warned that dismissal was possible?
• Preserve the 30-day appeal window, which opens when the board’s written order is filed with its clerk.

The full framework, and every Florida district technical college nursing program with its 2025 result, is on the Florida district technical college page. Program-level pass rates are tabulated on the Florida nursing program pass-rate page.

Where First Coast teaches its health programs

First Coast teaches health programs on two St. Augustine campuses, and its handbook adds a Jacksonville nursing site. The FCTC Student Handbook (effective July 2026) lists the Main Campus at 2980 Collins Avenue, the Public Safety Campus at 3640 Gaines Road, and a Brooks Campus at 3599 University Blvd. S. in Jacksonville. Its nursing page (page 84) lists Main and Brooks; the college’s website lists only St. Augustine campuses.

• Main Campus: Practical Nursing (1,350 hours), Surgical Technology (1,440 hours, with a 343-hour unpaid practicum), and Dental Assisting Technology and Management (1,230 hours).
• Public Safety Campus: Emergency Medical Technician (300 hours) and Paramedic (1,100 hours).

Nursing and surgical technology applicants need a 58.7% TEAS score, and clinicals may be in St. Johns, Putnam, Clay, or Duval counties or beyond. Each health program has a 2026-27 contract or policy manual on the Student Contracts page; the handbook says their academic standards may supersede its own (page 52), and the nursing, surgical technology, and dental contracts each include a signed “Informed Consent and Waiver of Liability.”

The scores and hours that end a First Coast health program

First Coast nursing students need 75% overall, on assessments, and on the clinical evaluation in every course, or they are withdrawn. The Practical Nursing Program Training Contract Agreement 2026-2027 (updated July 14, 2026) adds:

• Missing more than 19.5 clinical or simulation hours in a rotation, or more than 30 combined class and clinical hours, means dismissal; missing 5% of a course (usually 15 hours) brings an attendance contract.
• Arriving 30 minutes late to clinical forfeits that day’s hours.
• Two ATI exams require Level 2, though scores of 60% or more earn an administrative review. The ATI PN Comprehensive Predictor allows one retake after remediation and a third try only after a paid 12-week review; a third failure means dismissal.
• Retaken course tests count for no more than 75%, and failing to disclose a restriction that blocks clinical placement “will lead to” dismissal.

The Surgical Technology contract uses the same 75% and 19.5-hour rules. The Paramedic Policies and Procedures (August 2026) require an 80% average, dismiss a student from a course after a third failed initial test or any failed retest, and end the program after a second rejection by a clinical or rescue site. The handbook’s general rule is 90% attendance, yet its steps bring an attendance contract at 6% missed, removal notice only after 15%, and removal after six straight absent days (page 21).

Dismissal, readmission, and grievances at First Coast

The handbook gives the Director final approval of academic and conduct dismissals. A student below 70% at the end of a course goes on probation and may be dismissed on the College Dean’s recommendation (page 52). Level III and IV conduct goes to an Administrative Review Committee that reports to the Director (page 46). In nursing, a Level I offense costs the day’s 6.5 hours, a Level II offense brings a two-day suspension, and a Level III offense or third infraction brings a dismissal recommendation. A student dismissed under the conduct code gets no tuition refund.

Nursing students seeking re-entry ask Admissions; three unsuccessful readmissions mean a wait of at least a year, and anyone not finished within five years reapplies as new. The Surgical Technology contract states both two-year and five-year limits. Students dropped for ongoing lack of progress wait 90 school days unless administration approves (page 51).

Written grievances go to the Director’s office; the Director meets the student within five school days, and the student may appeal to the Superintendent within five school days after that meeting (page 55). The Paramedic manual cites a “Complaint Procedure” not found by that name in the handbook, plus a dead handbook link.

What the St. Johns County School Board rules add

The handbook says School Board rules “apply and supersede” college guidelines, and the nursing contract says the district’s Student Code of Conduct prevails over its discipline levels in any conflict. Yet the 2026-2027 Student Code of Conduct says it covers pre-kindergarten through grade 12, including high school students dual-enrolled at a technical center, and Rule 5.10 (revised July 14, 2026) calls for a code for elementary, middle, and high school students. Under Rule 5.12 (also revised July 14, 2026), expulsion recommendations pass through a District Discipline Committee and the Superintendent to the School Board, where a student may request an informal hearing on undisputed facts or a formal one on disputed facts. At a formal hearing, an adult student may bring counsel or another qualified representative and may call and cross-examine witnesses. The rule sets no deadline to request a hearing and never mentions First Coast.

Title IX complaints and accommodations for First Coast students

Sexual harassment complaints go to the district Title IX Coordinator (also its Equal Opportunity Officer) at 40 Orange Street; Rule 2.16 says complaints should be filed within 60 days of the incident. Rule 2.161 (adopted August 12, 2025) calls for written notice within two days of a formal complaint, an investigative report within 35 days, a decision within 60 calendar days, written questions instead of a hearing, an advisor who may be an attorney, and an appeal within five working days. The FCTC handbook never mentions Title IX and sends discrimination and harassment complaints to the Director.

First Coast says it “does not make inquiries” about disabilities; a student seeking accommodations must meet a Student Advisor and self-identify before assessments and before classes begin (page 14). Documentation from a qualified professional must be no more than five years old, and appeals go “via the Student Services Department,” with no stated deadline. The nursing contract’s essential functions include lifting 50 pounds and standing 8 to 12 hours; students buy their own adaptive equipment; with a physician’s note, acute physical limitations may qualify for up to three weeks of alternative clinical duty. The district’s Section 504 Coordinator is also at 40 Orange Street.

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:

• 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
• Futura Career Institute

Common questions about First Coast Technical College cases

What was First Coast Technical College’s nursing pass rate?

89.47% of 57 first-time practical-nursing candidates in 2025, against a statutory floor of 77.17%.

Does Fla. Stat. 1006.60 apply to First Coast Technical College?

No. That section applies to Florida College System institutions and state universities. This is a public school operated by the St. Johns County School District, so your protections come from the Fourteenth Amendment — see Castle v. Appalachian Technical College, an Eleventh Circuit case about a nursing student at a public technical college — and from the board’s own adopted rules.

Who has to make the final decision to expel me?

The district school board. Per Fla. Att’y Gen. Op. 2001-05 a board may delegate the evidentiary hearing to a hearing officer, but the final expulsion decision must be made by the board and cannot be delegated. These removals are often handled inside the college with no board vote, which is a concrete defect worth raising.

How long do I have to challenge the decision?

Thirty days from rendition, which is when the board’s written final order is filed with its clerk. Review is by appeal to a Florida District Court of Appeal under section 120.68, and the notice of appeal is filed with the board’s clerk. The court checks the hearing record for competent substantial evidence and for procedural or legal error — it does not reweigh the evidence.

How many clinical hours can a First Coast nursing student miss?

Under the 2026-2027 Practical Nursing Training Contract Agreement, a student who misses more than 19.5 clinical or simulation hours in a rotation, or more than 30 hours of combined class and clinical time, is dismissed. Missing 5% of a course (15 hours in most courses) brings an attendance contract, and arriving 30 minutes late to a clinical sends the student home with no hours for that day.

How does a First Coast student file a grievance, and how fast does it move?

The handbook asks students to try the classroom level first, then to submit the grievance in writing to the Director’s office. The Director meets with the student within five school days, and the student has five school days after that meeting to appeal to the St. Johns County Superintendent. Sexual harassment complaints go to the district Title IX Coordinator under School Board Rule 2.161, which allows an appeal within five working days of a decision.