Medical Institute of Palm Beach Student Defense Lawyer — Greenacres

The Medical Institute of Palm Beach, in Greenacres, ran one of the larger practical-nursing cohorts in Florida in 2025 and one of the weaker results, on a cohort big enough that the figure is a description of the program rather than a statistical accident.

57.58% of 66 first-time candidates

The practical-nursing program passed 57.58% of 66 first-time candidates against a 2025 statutory floor of 77.17% for practical nursing — thirty-eight passes and twenty-eight failures, close to twenty points below the minimum. Sixty-six candidates makes this one of the largest below-benchmark PN cohorts in the state.

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.

Practical-nursing students are often the least well placed to absorb a dismissal: the program is short, the tuition is frequently financed, and the credential is the whole point of enrolling. A program performing this far below the statutory floor while continuing to enroll is exactly the situation section 464.019(5)(c) was written for, if probationary status can be established.

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.

Where a Medical Institute of Palm Beach case is filed

Greenacres is in Palm Beach County, which 28 U.S.C. section 89(c) places in the Southern District of Florida, West Palm Beach Division. I am based in Boca Raton, in the same county. Note that the institute is recorded in federal data as not degree-granting, which is consistent with a diploma practical-nursing program and matters when assessing what the credential was contractually promised to be.

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 the August 2026 catalog says the practical nursing program is

The current rulebook is the Catalog, Volume 01-2026, posted in August 2026 and the only place the institute publishes its academic rules. It puts the campus at 5821-B Lake Worth Rd and lists four programs: Practical Nursing at 1,350 clock hours, Medical Assistant at 900, Nursing Assistant at 120 and Home Health Aide. Practical nursing tuition is $24,950 plus a $50 registration fee, including textbooks, uniforms, lab equipment, CPR and ATI resources; the background check, physical and license examination fees are the student’s (page 34). Classes run Monday through Thursday, mornings 8:00 a.m. to 2:15 p.m. and evenings 6:00 to 10:00 p.m., with Friday kept for make-up time and tutoring.

Admission to practical nursing is stricter than the website suggests. Page 10 requires a high school diploma or GED, a competency test scored at least 500 with priority to the highest reading and math scores, a negative urine drug screen before enrollment, proof of good physical and mental health from a licensed provider within six months of clinical, and a criminal background check. None of that appears on the institute’s online admission requirements page, which lists only identification, transcripts and a minimum age of 17.

The institute is licensed by the Commission for Independent Education and says it is accredited by the Council on Occupational Education. The Florida Board of Nursing’s Nursing Compare record, read on September 17, 2026, listed the practical nursing certificate (license 701168) as Probationary, with no accrediting body shown and a first-time pass rate of 48.28 percent for 2024. The catalog posted in August 2026 says nothing about that status.

The repeat limit and the clinical rule that end the program

Two rules do most of the dismissing here. Page 24 says a student must repeat any course graded 76 percent or below, gets one opportunity to repeat a module during the whole program, and on failing again to reach 77 percent is dismissed “without the opportunity to reenroll.” Repeating a practical nursing module also means paying additional ATI fees in full before re-enrolling. Note the arithmetic: the catalog’s own scale on page 26 makes 77 to 84 a C and 70 to 76 a D, so the repeat rule calls a D a C.

The Module Completion, Clinical Performance and Credit Policy on pages 34 to 36 is harder still. A nursing module has a classroom part and a clinical part and both must be passed; a strong classroom average does not offset a failed clinical, and a satisfactory clinical does not offset a classroom average below 77 percent. Fail either and the whole module is failed: no credit, and none of the classroom, laboratory, simulation or clinical hours count toward completion. A student dismissed part-way through a module keeps nothing from it and repeats it entirely if readmitted. Clinical absences can be made up only at a clinical site, never on campus, and must be approved in advance; if make-up time is granted and the student does not appear, the catalog says the student is terminated.

Attendance arithmetic that does not agree with itself

Ask which attendance number was applied to your evaluation, because the institute publishes three. Page 18 says attendance is mandatory, students must attend 100 percent of module hours, and anyone exceeding 10 percent absence in a module may be dropped with an F and made to repeat it. The satisfactory progress section on page 26 measures each evaluation point against “at least 90% attendance.” The next page sets the minimum at 80 percent, and the website’s consumer information page says 80 percent too. Separately, fourteen consecutive absences, including non-scheduled class days, end enrollment outright; a student is tardy fifteen minutes after class starts, and three tardies count as a day absent.

How to complain, how long you have, and what is missing

The grievance procedure on page 21 has three internal steps: raise it with the instructor, ask the Director of Education to intervene, then put a written description to the Campus Director. No deadline is published for any of them, and the Director of Education named at step two does not appear on the administrative staff list on page 6. A much shorter clock sits on page 22: a student may appeal an expulsion within 72 hours to the Campus Director, and “in the absence of an appeal, the student shall be considered terminated.” The progress appeal on page 27 goes to the Campus Director on mitigating circumstances, again with no deadline. Readmission depends on why you left: a student terminated for progress may reapply not less than 30 days later and no one may re-enroll more than twice, while a student dismissed for a conduct violation “may not apply for readmission” at all (page 17).

Outside the institute the catalog prints three routes: the Commission for Independent Education, 325 W. Gaines St., Suite 1414, Tallahassee, FL 32399-0400, 888-224-6684; the Council on Occupational Education, 7840 Roswell Rd., Building 300, Suite 325, Atlanta, GA 30350, 800-917-2081, whose complaint form the catalog says is kept in the Campus Director’s office; and the Florida Board of Nursing, 4052 Bald Cypress Way, Bin C02, Tallahassee, FL 32399-3252, 850-488-0595.

What is not published matters as much. There is no Title IX policy, coordinator or grievance procedure in the catalog or on the website. Disability support is two near-identical paragraphs, on pages 5 and 31, about building access and “reasonable appropriate assistance as needed.” No office, no documentation requirement, no request form, no appeal from a refusal. The enrollment agreement is called a contract on page 13 but is not published. On the Student Consumer Information page, the link labeled Consumer Information Booklet opens a make-up time sheet, and the one labeled Federal Direct Loan Code of Conduct opens a high school transcript request form. Ask in writing for the enrollment agreement you signed, any nursing handbook, the accommodation procedure and the Title IX procedure, and keep the date you asked.

Other Florida health-professional programs

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 health-professional programs:

• Miami Dade College Medical Campus
• NSU Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Allopathic Medicine — Dismissal & Appeals
• NSU Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Osteopathic Medicine — Dismissal & Appeals
• Orlando College of Osteopathic Medicine
• UCF College of Medicine — Dismissal & Appeals
• Ultimate Medical Academy

Common questions about Medical Institute of Palm Beach cases

What was the practical nursing pass rate?

57.58% of 66 first-time candidates in 2025 — thirty-eight passes and twenty-eight failures — against a practical-nursing floor of 77.17%.

Is the benchmark different for practical nursing?

Yes. Fla. Stat. section 464.019(5)(a)1 measures each program against the national average for comparable programs, so practical nursing had a 2025 floor of 77.17% while associate-degree programs had 76.05%.

What is the disclosure point under 464.019(5)(c)?

A program placed on probation must disclose that status in writing to students and applicants, with an explanation of what it means. A school that enrolled a student while on probation without giving that notice faces an independent, statute-based misrepresentation theory.

Which court covers Greenacres?

The Southern District of Florida, West Palm Beach Division. Greenacres is in Palm Beach County, which is in the Southern District under 28 U.S.C. section 89(c).

The letter says my daughter is expelled. How long does she have to challenge it?

The catalog gives two different answers depending on the ground. Page 22 says a student may appeal an expulsion within 72 hours to the Campus Director and that, in the absence of an appeal, the student is considered terminated. The grievance procedure on page 21 and the satisfactory progress appeal on page 27 set no deadline at all. If the letter does not say which rule was used, appeal in writing to the Campus Director within 72 hours anyway, and ask in the same letter which policy and page the decision was made under.

She passed her classes but failed clinical. Does any of that work still count?

No, and the catalog is unusually blunt about it. The Module Completion, Clinical Performance and Credit Policy on pages 34 to 36 says a nursing module is failed if either the classroom or the clinical component is failed, that a passing academic grade does not compensate for a failed clinical, and that no credit and none of the classroom, laboratory, simulation or clinical hours count toward completion. A student who is eligible to repeat must repeat the entire module, and the catalog allows only one module repeat in the whole program.