McFatter Technical College Dismissal Lawyer — Davie, Florida

William T. McFatter Technical College in Davie is operated by Broward County Public Schools. Its practical-nursing program finished 2025 below the statutory floor, on one of the larger district cohorts in the state. Not every McFatter program meets in Davie: electrocardiograph technology, patient care assistant and phlebotomy are taught at 441 NW 35th Avenue in Fort Lauderdale, and the emergency-medical and firefighter programs at the Broward Fire Academy.

75.00% of 56 first-time candidates

The program passed 75.00% of 56 first-time candidates against a 77.17% floor — forty-two passes and fourteen failures, a shortfall of just over two points.

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 — a 77.17% floor for practical nursing in 2025. McFatter finished under it. 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 requires it to disclose that status in writing to students and applicants. A single year below is not probation, and the Board of Nursing publishes no probation roster, though the Department of Health’s licensing portal does show a current status for each approved program. Full tables are on the Florida nursing program pass-rate page.

Worth noting for context rather than for comfort: Broward County Public Schools also runs Sheridan Technical College, which passed 79.01% of 81 candidates the same year, and Atlantic Technical College, which passed 87.50% of 56. Three colleges, one school board, one set of board policies — and markedly different results. That comparison is useful, because it points at program-level practice rather than at anything the district as a whole imposes, and the district generated it itself.

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 practical-nursing student here gets none of the statutory protections a nursing 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 clinical-competency 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 McFatter case is filed

Broward County is in the Southern District of Florida under 28 U.S.C. section 89(c), Fort Lauderdale 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. I am based in Boca Raton and appear in that district regularly.

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.

McFatter publishes its own catalog, and it is the document to read first

McFatter puts almost everything in one place: the McFatter Technical College 2026-2027 Catalog, printed in August 2026. It opens with campus history (the college opened in 1985, the Technical High School followed in 1998, and the School Board renamed the college on June 24, 2014) and covers attendance, probation, re-registration and grievances on pages 10 to 13.

It also says where each program meets, which matters when a notice tells you to report somewhere. The main campus is 6500 Nova Drive, Davie, 24 acres at Davie Road and Nova Drive. Emergency Medical Technician and Firefighter classes are at the Broward Fire Academy, 2600 S.W. 71 Terrace, Davie. Electrocardiograph Technology, Patient Care Assistant and Phlebotomy run at the Broward Estates Early Learning and Resource Center, 441 NW 35th Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, and Television Production at BECON, 6600 Nova Drive.

Program lengths sit on the catalog’s program pages: Practical Nursing (1,350 hours), Dental Laboratory Technology (2,040), Medical Assisting (1,300), Pharmacy Technician (1,050), Massage Therapy (750, hybrid), Electrocardiograph Technology (465), Patient Care Assistant (235) and Phlebotomy (165). Practical Nursing is accredited by the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing, and page 46 reports 2023-2024 data: a 44 percent completion rate and 77 percent job placement. The cost table, marked “Revised 10/25,” puts Pharmacy Technician at $4,792, while the program page says $4,885.

Six days, three withdrawals, and the way back in

Attendance ends more McFatter enrollments than discipline does. Catalog page 11 requires withdrawal after six consecutive days absent, effective on the seventh. Two extra absences may be exempted for a court appearance, a death in the family, illness or hospitalization, and jury duty is exempt with documentation; if you cannot produce it beforehand, give it to the instructor and program administrator before re-entering class.

• After an attendance withdrawal you cannot re-register without meeting the program administrator, who may put you on probation for the rest of the enrollment period. Any further absence means withdrawal and no re-entry until the next period.
• Three withdrawals in twelve months bars re-entry to that program for two consecutive enrollment periods, and lock-step programs may make you wait longer still.
• The instructor and counselor can deny re-registration for poor attendance “or any other reasons,” with administrative approval needed to deny or rescind it.
• Involuntary withdrawal applies where instructor, counselor and administrator decide “the educational focus of the student no longer exists” (page 13).
• More than three tardies brings a referral. The catalog records attendance in “positive half hour increments”; the 2026/2027 Broward Technical Colleges Student Handbook says 15-minute increments. Ask which your program used.

Health Science students carry an extra rule: a positive drug screen means withdrawal, or a bar on any Health Science program for one year from the notification date. The label matters for money, too. The catalog cites School Board Policy 6607 for refunds and says students withdrawn involuntarily under the Adult Student Conduct and Discipline Code get nothing back, though a refund decision can itself be grieved.

Filing a grievance, and the address printed on the form

McFatter publishes both the process and the form, and the form carries a notable error. The McFatter Student Grievance Form is headed with the college’s name but prints Sheridan Technical College’s address, phone number and website on its letterhead. The instructions are right: file at the Administration Office or email mtcgrievance@browardschools.com. The form also asks whether the complaint concerns disability services, which routes it separately.

The Grievance Process Overview gives the ladder: informal meeting, the form to the Principal/Director, the Director of the Office of Service Quality, then the Superintendent’s office. Each stage runs on five school days in the handbook, and the Superintendent’s decision is called final for the penalty.

Two paperwork problems make this harder. The catalog says the grievance procedures live in the Broward Technical Colleges Student Handbook, but McFatter’s Student Handbooks page still links the 2025-2026 edition, a 32-page book, when the current one runs 60 pages and is marked Rev 8.10.2026. The address printed on that handbook’s cover, BrowardTechnicalColleges.edu, does not resolve; the working site is the .com version. Handbook and catalog also disagree on who hears a residency appeal: an Admissions, Financial Aid and International Student panel, or an Admissions Director, Student Affairs Director, counselor and Assistant Director.

Accommodations, and where a discrimination complaint actually goes

McFatter routes accommodation requests through its School Social Worker/Disability Services Office, and the paperwork list is long. The Disability Services page asks for documentation no more than five years old plus a packet: a Verification of Disability Form or current diagnostic documentation, an Explanation of Learner Rights and Responsibilities, a Section 504 Acknowledgement, a Student Information Form, optional medical and release forms, and vocational rehabilitation information if it applies. A high school IEP or 504 plan counts only if it is current and from a Florida high school. After the counselor interview and acceptance letter comes a 504 intake interview with the college’s 504 plan liaison.

If the answer is no, the handbook’s Section 504 route gives the Principal/Director 15 school days to issue a Grievance Resolution Notice, which reaches the district’s Equal Educational Opportunities/ADA Compliance department before it reaches you; after that you ask the Superintendent for an impartial hearing.

Discrimination and harassment complaints leave the college. Board Policy 4001.1, last approved June 13, 2017, sends them to the Equal Educational Opportunities/ADA Compliance department at 600 SE Third Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, whose Director is the district’s Equity and Title IX Coordinator, and sets an investigation of roughly 60 calendar days built from 10, 10, 10 and 25 working-day steps; sexual harassment findings go to a Professional Standards Committee. It publishes no filing deadline. The district’s Title IX page instead points students to Policy 5900, amended September 13, 2022, which sets a 90 school-day filing window and a finding within 15 school days, but sends student appeals to a K-12 conduct code that does not govern adult students.

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:

• Merryfield Academy
• More Tech Institute
• New Professions Technical Institute
• Nouvelle Institute
• NRI Institute of Health Sciences
• Okaloosa Technical College Dismissal

Common questions about McFatter Technical College cases

What was McFatter’s nursing pass rate?

75.00% of 56 first-time candidates in 2025 — forty-two passes, fourteen failures — against a practical-nursing floor of 77.17%.

How does it compare with Broward’s other technical colleges?

Sheridan Technical College passed 79.01% of 81 candidates and Atlantic Technical College 87.50% of 56 the same year. All three are Broward County Public Schools institutions under the same board policies, so the gap points at program-level practice.

Am I covered by Florida’s student discipline statute?

No. Fla. Stat. section 1006.60 covers Florida College System institutions and state universities. McFatter is run by Broward County Public Schools, so your rights come from the Fourteenth Amendment — see Castle v. Appalachian Technical College, a nursing student at a public technical college — and from the school board’s own adopted rules.

Which court hears a McFatter case?

The Southern District of Florida, Fort Lauderdale Division, for a federal claim. 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.

McFatter withdrew me for missing six days. When can I start again?

The 2026-2027 McFatter catalog says you cannot re-register until you meet your program administrator, who may place you on probation for the rest of the enrollment period, and any further absence puts you out again until the next period. Three withdrawals within twelve months bars you from that program for two consecutive enrollment periods, and in a lock-step program you may wait longer until a restart point comes around. Ask in writing which of those the college is applying to you.

The grievance form McFatter gave me has a Hollywood address on it. Did I file in the wrong place?

Probably not. The published McFatter Student Grievance Form is headed with McFatter’s name but prints Sheridan Technical College’s address, phone number and website on its letterhead, which appears to be an error in the form itself. The instructions on the same page tell you to file at the Administration Office or email mtcgrievance@browardschools.com, and it is worth keeping proof of the date and method you used, because each step of the grievance procedure runs on a five-school-day clock.