Fortis College Cutler Bay Student Defense Lawyer

Fortis College’s Cutler Bay campus is a for-profit institution in Miami-Dade County, licensed by Florida’s Commission for Independent Education and participating in federal student aid. Federal disputes go to the Southern District of Florida, Miami Division. It offers both an associate degree in nursing and practical nursing. For the wider picture across all four Florida campuses under the Fortis College and Fortis Institute names, see the Fortis College and Fortis Institute Florida page; this page is about Cutler Bay specifically, because its 2025 numbers are unlike the others.

The 2025 associate-degree result was the weakest in the Fortis system, by a wide margin

The Board of Nursing’s 2025 report identifies this program by campus, which matters — several Fortis entries in the report carry no campus designation and cannot honestly be attributed to a particular location, but this one names Cutler Bay. The associate degree in nursing had sixty-eight first-time candidates, of whom thirty-six passed: 52.94%, against a national benchmark of 76.05% for associate-degree programs. That is more than twenty-three percentage points below the line, and thirty-two candidates failed. The campus-designated practical nursing entry had twelve first-time candidates with nine passing, 75.00%, also below the 77.17% practical nursing benchmark though on a much smaller cohort.

Sixty-eight is a substantial cohort. This is not a small-sample artefact, and it is one of the largest below-benchmark associate-degree results in the state for that year. If someone has told you your dismissal reflects an individual failure to meet the program’s standard, that claim now has to coexist with the fact that nearly half of the cohort that did complete the program could not pass the licensing examination.

How Florida measures a nursing program, and why the number matters to your case

Section 464.019(5), Florida Statutes, ties a nursing program’s standing to the passing rate of its first-time NCLEX candidates. When a program’s annual rate falls below the national average passing rate for that credential, the Board of Nursing places it on probationary status, and the program has to submit a remediation plan and hold that plan open until its rate recovers. For the 2025 reporting year the national benchmarks were 76.05% for associate-degree registered nursing, 77.59% for baccalaureate registered nursing, 77.17% for practical nursing, and 73.37% for diploma registered nursing programs.

Be clear about what that figure does and does not do for a dismissed student. A low pass rate is not a defense. It does not make your dismissal unlawful and no hearing panel will treat it that way. What it does is three narrower things, and each of them is worth something. First, a program carrying a remediation plan has documented obligations to its students — tutoring, repeat testing, faculty ratios, progression review — and if the program dismissed you for a benchmark it was itself failing to support, that gap is discoverable and it is the kind of fact that changes how a complaint reads. Second, it makes consistency testable: if a cohort saw thirty per cent of its members fail the same exit exam, a dismissal justified as an individual academic failure invites the question of who else failed it and what happened to them. Third, it is leverage. A program already under Board attention has a real institutional reason to resolve a student’s complaint quietly rather than let it become another entry in a file the Board is reading.

What a result this size actually gives you

Three things, concretely. First, a program in this position is carrying obligations to its students under a Board remediation plan — tutoring, progression review, faculty resourcing, repeat testing — and those obligations are documented. If you were dismissed for failing to meet a standard the program was itself failing to support, the gap between the plan and the delivery is discoverable and it changes how a grievance reads. Second, consistency becomes testable in a way it rarely is: in a cohort where thirty-two candidates failed the licensing examination, a dismissal justified as an isolated academic failure invites the question of who else was in your position and what was done for them rather than to them. Third, leverage. A program this far below benchmark has a live institutional interest in not generating another adverse record, and that is a practical reason to resolve a student complaint rather than defend it.

What it does not give you is a defense. Section 464.019(5) governs the program’s standing with the Board, not the propriety of any individual dismissal, and a court will not treat a pass rate as making a dismissal unlawful. Anyone who tells you otherwise is setting you up to lose an argument you did not need to make.

Do not let another campus’s number be attributed to you, or yours to them

A specific caution, because it comes up. The Board’s 2025 report contains Fortis entries with no campus designation alongside the campus-designated ones. The 52.94% figure belongs to Cutler Bay because the report names Cutler Bay. It should not be attributed to Orange Park, Port St. Lucie or Pensacola, and equally, an undesignated Fortis figure should not be presented as yours. If a pass rate is going to feature in your appeal, quote the campus-designated entry and say which entry you are quoting. Precision here is not pedantry — a school that catches you misattributing a figure gets to answer the error instead of the argument.

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.

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.

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 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, the CIE complaint route exists alongside any civil claim and is often the faster pressure point.

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

All four Florida Fortis campuses · Florida nursing program NCLEX pass rates, school by school · Florida student defense

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:

• FSCJ Nassau Center
• FSCJ North Campus
• Gainesville
• HCC
• HCC Dale Mabry Campus
• HCC Ybor City Campus

Common questions about Fortis College Cutler Bay cases

What was Fortis College Cutler Bay’s NCLEX pass rate in 2025?

The campus-designated associate degree entry had sixty-eight first-time candidates and thirty-six passed — 52.94%, against a 76.05% national benchmark. The campus-designated practical nursing entry had twelve candidates with nine passing, 75.00%, against a 77.17% benchmark. Both were below the line.

Is 52.94% reliable, or is it a small-sample problem?

It is reliable. Sixty-eight first-time candidates is a substantial cohort, so this is not the kind of figure that swings on one or two results. It is one of the largest below-benchmark associate-degree results in Florida for that year.

Does that pass rate mean my dismissal was wrong?

No, and pressing it as a defense would hurt you. Section 464.019(5) concerns the program’s standing with the Board, not whether an individual student was properly dismissed. What the figure gives you is a way to test consistency, a basis to ask what support the program owed and delivered, and real leverage — not a defense.

How does the pass rate actually help me then?

In three ways. A program in this position carries documented obligations under a remediation plan, and a gap between plan and delivery is discoverable. Consistency becomes testable when thirty-two candidates in the cohort failed. And a program this far below benchmark has a strong institutional reason to resolve a complaint rather than generate another adverse record.

Do the other Fortis campuses have the same numbers?

No, and this is important to get right. The 52.94% figure belongs to Cutler Bay because the Board’s report names Cutler Bay. Several Fortis entries in the report carry no campus designation and cannot be attributed to any particular location. If you quote a rate, quote the campus-designated entry and say which one it is.

Which court covers the Cutler Bay campus?

Miami-Dade County is in the Southern District of Florida, Miami Division. Read your enrollment agreement first, though — an arbitration clause may take the dispute out of court entirely.