NRI Institute of Health Sciences Student Defense Lawyer — Royal Palm Beach

NRI Institute of Health Sciences is a private for-profit school whose main campus is in Wellington, with the nursing program taught at its Royal Palm Beach extension campus. It finished 2025 below the statutory nursing floor, and it has a records problem worth knowing about before anything is filed.

64.29% of 28 first-time candidates

The associate-degree program passed 64.29% of 28 first-time candidates against a floor of 76.05% — eighteen passes and ten failures, close to twelve points short.

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.

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.

The institution shares a federal record with another name

The federal IPEDS record covering this Royal Palm Beach location is filed under Ultrasound Medical Institute, while carrying the NRI web domain. The school’s own catalog settles the relationship at page 5: Ultrasound Medical Institute, Inc. does business as NRI Institute of Health Sciences, Inc., a Florida corporation, document number P06000144260. One entity, two names — but the enrollment agreement still decides which name made the promises.

For a dismissed student the consequence is practical. The enrollment agreement, the tuition receipts and the Commission for Independent Education license record are what establish which legal entity made the promises, and they need to be read before a demand letter goes out. Naming the wrong entity in a complaint costs time a limitation period may not allow.

Where an NRI case is filed

Royal Palm Beach 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.

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.

Which NRI campus your program runs on, and which catalog governs it

NRI runs two addresses, and the nursing program is not at the one most people write down. Its Academic Catalog/Student Handbook for Academic Year 2025/2026 (version 05/01/2026) gives the Main Campus as 12794 Forest Hill Blvd., Suites 31-32, Wellington, and an Extension Campus at 1402 Royal Palm Beach Blvd., Building 600, Royal Palm Beach (cover and page 9). Page 11 splits them: sonography and general education run at Wellington, while the Associate of Science in Nursing courses and labs run at the Royal Palm Beach extension campus.

The Commission for Independent Education’s licensed-school record, school #1768, lists the Wellington address, a license status of “License By Means of Accreditation,” a license held since 2/20/1995, and three programs: nursing (RN 704188), 78 credits; diagnostic medical sonography, 1,885 clock hours; and a cardiac sonography diploma, 1,305 clock hours. The ownership section on page 5 states the school’s corporate name and the trading name it uses – the document that answers the naming question raised above.

There is also a document trap: the Academics page links the 2025/2026 catalog, but the nursing and sonography program pages both link an older 2023/2024 edition giving one address, 503 Royal Palm Beach Boulevard. Ask the registrar in writing which edition was in force on your start date, and get it as a PDF.

The numbers that end an NRI nursing program

The grading scale on page 19 runs A at 95-100%, C at 76-80%, D at 73-75% and F at 72% and below. Satisfactory academic progress on the same page requires 70% attendance in didactic hours, 100% attendance in externship, clinical and laboratory hours, all tests completed at a 76% level, and a cumulative grade point average of 2.0. Page 20 caps the program at 150% of the allotted time, counting any leave of absence, and dismisses students who exceed it.

Page 21 is the one to read twice. Absences exceeding 30% of a course’s scheduled classroom, clinical and lab hours produce an automatic failure, excused or not. To move up a level a nursing student needs 76% in the testing theory portion, 76% in the non-testing theory portion, and a Satisfactory in the clinical component, and non-testing grades count only if the testing grade is already 76% or higher. Failure of any one component means repeating the whole course with the repeat fee. Two tardies equal one absence.

The repeat rules on page 26 run out quickly. A core course may be repeated only once; withdrawing from a repeat before six weeks still counts as the second attempt; only two core courses may be repeated across the program; and a third core failure, or the same core course failed twice, means termination. So does failing three or more courses in one semester; a W/F counts as a failure. Page 28 allows no more than two clinical absences a semester, and a student who does not call at least an hour before a missed clinical day is a “no call/no show” – an automatic course failure, “NO exception. NOT appealable.”

Two business days: the grievance clock at NRI

NRI’s grievance window is unusually short. Page 27 says the steps “must be observed, in their entirety, within two (2) business days following the reported incident or reason for the grievance.” First comes a meeting with the instructor involved, who signs a Grievance Form to confirm it happened; then an oral grievance to the Programs Administrator, who also signs; then a written grievance letter in two copies, one to the Programs Administrator and one to the Appeal Committee Chairperson. The ad hoc Appeals Committee must have at least three faculty members and three student representatives, meet within one week of filing, and give its decision immediately after the meeting. You may stay in class and clinical during the appeal unless it concerns a conduct violation or unsafe practice at the clinical site.

A dismissal for grade point average runs on a different clock: page 25 gives a written appeal to the school director or designee within one week. The grievance list also prints the same step twice, so ask which is meant before counting days. Five behavioral violations trigger discipline up to termination (page 24), and a second academic dishonesty offense brings expulsion with no re-enrollment (page 23). Outside the school, page 27 prints the Commission for Independent Education, 325 West Gaines Street, Suite 1414, Tallahassee, (850) 245-3200, and the Council on Occupational Education, 7840 Roswell Road, Building 300, Suite 325, Atlanta, GA 30350, (770) 396-3898.

Coming back, and what NRI does not publish

Readmission is limited. Page 13 treats a return inside 180 days as reinstatement and anything later as readmission; only one readmission is allowed per program; students terminated for academic dishonesty or the code of conduct will not be readmitted; a student dismissed for academic reasons may reapply no earlier than one semester later; and after a year all core courses must be repeated. Returning students start on probation and must supply two letters of recommendation from their most recent primary clinical faculty and a petition letter describing what will change.

Two gaps are worth naming plainly. The catalog has no disability services office and no accommodation procedure. The only line on the subject sits in the non-discrimination policy on page 10: it is the student’s responsibility to make any disability known to the Program Director. There is no request form, no documentation standard, no decision deadline and no appeal from a refusal, so ask in writing for all four. The harassment and assault section on page 24 likewise names no coordinator and prints no procedure or timeline for a sexual-harassment report. Separately, the Board of Nursing’s prelicensure-program list carried two NRI associate-degree entries when read on September 17, 2026 – license 704188 at 12794 Forest Hill Blvd and license 704277 at “12974” Forest Hill Blvd, Suite 32, both Approved. Ask which one covers your cohort.

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:

• Okaloosa Technical College Dismissal
• Orange Technical College Dismissal
• Orange Technical College East Campus Dismissal
• Orange Technical College South Campus Dismissal
• Orange Technical College West Campus Dismissal
• Osceola Technical College Dismissal

Common questions about NRI Institute of Health Sciences cases

What was NRI’s nursing pass rate?

64.29% of 28 first-time candidates in 2025 — eighteen passes and ten failures — against a statutory floor of 76.05%.

Why does the federal record show a different name?

The IPEDS record is filed under Ultrasound Medical Institute while carrying the NRI web domain. The school’s catalog explains it at page 5: Ultrasound Medical Institute, Inc. does business as NRI Institute of Health Sciences, Inc., Florida document number P06000144260. One entity, two names — so check which name your enrollment agreement was signed in, and the CIE license record.

Does that affect a claim?

It can. Naming the wrong entity in a complaint costs time a limitation period may not allow, so the entity question is worth settling before a demand letter, let alone a filing.

Which court covers Royal Palm Beach?

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

My NRI grievance form was rejected as late. Is the two-day deadline real?

It is what the catalog prints. Page 27 of the Academic Catalog/Student Handbook says the grievance steps must be completed “in their entirety, within two (2) business days following the reported incident or reason for the grievance.” That is a very short window, and the catalog also prints the same step twice, so it is worth asking the school in writing which edition it is applying and which step it says you missed. A dismissal for grade point average is different: page 25 gives a written appeal to the school director or designee within one week.

How many nursing courses can I fail at NRI before I am out?

Page 26 of the current catalog sets the limits. A core course may be repeated only once, no more than two core courses may be repeated across the whole program, and a third core failure – or the same core course failed twice – ends the program. Failing three or more courses in one semester also ends it. A W/F counts as a failure, and withdrawing from a repeat before six weeks still counts as the second attempt, so check how the school has counted every W on your transcript.