H.W. Brewster Technical College Dismissal Lawyer

H.W. Brewster Technical College in Tampa is operated by Hillsborough County Public Schools.

A career program, and a framework nobody explains

This college does not report a nursing program to the Board of Nursing, so the pass-rate analysis that dominates Florida student-defense writing does not apply here. What does apply is the procedural framework below, and it is the part students are never told about — because the statute everyone cites was written for a different kind of institution.

The Hillsborough picture

Hillsborough County Public Schools runs three technical colleges — Brewster, Aparicio-Levy and Erwin. Only Erwin reports a practical-nursing program, at 87.10% of 31 in 2025. For Brewster students the analysis rests entirely on the procedural framework below, and on the district school board policy rather than the college handbook.

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

Tampa is in Hillsborough County, which puts a federal claim in the Middle District of Florida, Tampa 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.

Brewster’s health programs: pharmacy technician and sterile processing

Brewster Technical College, at 2222 N. Tampa Street in Tampa, has two health programs for 2026-27, Pharmacy Technician and Central Sterile Processing Technology, and no nursing program. The campus sits on land donated to the school board in 1923 under a deed condition that it be used only for vocational and technical education. A second Brewster campus at 13609 N. 22nd Street is listed as awaiting state and accreditor approval.

• Pharmacy Technician runs 1,050 clock hours, weekdays from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Each of its three pharmacy courses includes a clinical externship in local pharmacy settings. The program page requires students to be 18 or older, complete a physical with proof of immunizations, complete an FDLE background check and drug screen when requested, lift 40 pounds, work shifts of 6.5 to 8.5 hours, and have the dexterity and eyesight to use and read syringes. It reports an 82 percent completion rate and 70 percent placement for the 2024 class. The handbook calls it an 11-month program; the program page and the district’s program list say 12.
• Central Sterile Processing Technology runs 650 clock hours, about seven months. Its last course is a 410-hour practicum that must be finished entirely in a clinical setting to complete the program; the program page says 400 hours of hands-on work, plus 24 quizzes and six tests, and requires the ability to lift 50 pounds.

How a Brewster student can lose a seat

Low grades, missed hours, a failed drug screen, or a clinical site’s refusal can each derail enrollment under Brewster’s edition of the 2026-2027 Hillsborough Technical Colleges Student Handbook (July 2026 publication).

• Grades. Brewster’s appendix requires a 2.0 in each state course or occupational completion point. A student below 2.0 goes on academic probation and may be withdrawn if the average is not back to 2.0 when the course ends.
• Hours. Students must complete at least 90 percent of each course’s clock hours; past 10 percent missed, a student may be withdrawn at the end of the course. The third day of no-show, no-contact brings administrative withdrawal. Scanning in someone else’s badge also means withdrawal. Brewster’s appendix leaves tardy and early-departure rules to each program guide, which students read in FOCUS, the student information system, rather than on the public website.
• Drug screens. A positive first test means a retest at the student’s cost; a second positive means withdrawal and a wait of at least one year from the screening date. A clinical site’s decision on letting a student in is final.
• Health and fitness. Behavior suggesting impairment or illness can bring a referral for evaluation by a qualified health professional at the student’s expense; Student Services and administration then decide whether the student continues. After an injury or illness, Brewster may require a physician’s release stating no restrictions on class, lab, or clinical work.

Brewster’s appendix publishes no minimum exam score and no limit on course failures for either health program.

Who reviews a Brewster withdrawal, and how to come back

A withdrawn student asks the school counselor or program advisor to start an Academic Affairs Committee review. A site administrator assembles the committee, which also takes up conduct at clinical and externship sites. The handbook publishes no deadline, hearing, or appeal for it.

To return, a student must wait at least 60 calendar days after withdrawal before reapplying, clear any balance owed, and, if reapplying within two years, go through committee review. Approval is usually a single re-entry, and a withdrawal for conduct also needs an administrator’s sign-off.

For serious discipline, school board policy puts suspensions of up to ten school days with the principal and sends any expulsion from the principal to the Superintendent and then to the Board, which also decides expulsion appeals (Policy 5610). Policy 5611 calls for written notice first. Neither policy names the technical colleges.

Complaints, harassment reports, and disability requests from Brewster

Brewster students use the district’s offices, and the only filing deadlines appear in board policy. The handbook’s complaint ladder climbs from the instructor to a written complaint to the principal, the Director of Workforce and Continuing Education, the Regional Superintendent, and the HCPS Formal Grievance Form (SB60801), without deadlines. Policy 2260.02 gives 60 calendar days to begin and 10 school days to take a principal’s written decision to the Office of Employee Relations.

Sexual harassment and other discrimination can be reported to a school administrator or the district’s Office for Civil Rights Compliance. Under Policy 5517.02, the investigation targets 21 calendar days, and the Superintendent decides within ten business days of the report or orders more investigation.

For accommodations, a student tells the school counselor or program advisor and provides documentation of the disability. Policy 2260.01 makes the Supervisor of Psychological Services the district’s Section 504 contact for students. The handbook lists no appeal for a denied request.

One gap to know about: the “Student Code of Conduct” link on Brewster’s website opens an ESOL registration scheduling page, not a code. The handbook mentions an “HCPS/HTC Professional Code of Student Conduct” but never reproduces it.

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:

• Hollywood Institute
• International Institute for Healthcare Professionals
• iTECH Immokalee Technical College Dismissal
• J-Tech Jones Technical Institute
• Lake Technical College Dismissal
• Lee Professional Institute

Common questions about H.W. Brewster Technical College cases

Does the nursing pass-rate analysis apply here?

No — this college does not report a nursing program to the Board of Nursing. What applies is the procedural framework: Fla. Stat. section 1006.60 does not reach district technical colleges, so the Fourteenth Amendment and the school board’s own rules govern.

Does Fla. Stat. 1006.60 apply to H.W. Brewster Technical College?

No. That section applies to Florida College System institutions and state universities. This is a public school operated by Hillsborough County Public Schools, 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.

Where are the attendance rules for Brewster’s Pharmacy Technician program?

In the program guide. Brewster’s section of the 2026-2027 handbook says tardy and early-departure rules are set there, and that the guide and course syllabi are available in FOCUS; they are not posted on Brewster’s public website. The handbook itself sets the minimum: at least 90 percent of each course’s clock hours.

What happens if a Brewster student fails a drug screen?

A first positive result leads to a retest at the student’s cost, and a second positive result means withdrawal. The student must then wait at least one year from the screening date before reapplying and asking the Academic Affairs Committee to approve re-entry. A clinical site can also require its own screening, and its decision on admitting the student is final.