Quest Nursing Education Center Student Defense Lawyer | Tampa

Quest Nursing Education Center’s Tampa programme finished 2025 sixteen points below the statutory floor.

60.00% of 30 first-time candidates

The programme passed 60.00% of 30 first-time candidates against a floor of 76.05% — eighteen passes and twelve failures. Two candidates in five failed.

Under Fla. Stat. section 464.019(5)(a)1 a Florida nursing programme’s first-time NCLEX passage rate must stay within 10 percentage points of the national average for comparable programmes — in 2025 that floor was 76.05% for associate-degree programmes and 77.17% for practical-nursing programmes. Section 464.019(5)(a)2 puts a programme two consecutive years below the floor at risk of probation and loss of approval, and section 464.019(5)(c) then obliges the programme 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, so probationary status must be established from board minutes and orders rather than inferred. Every Florida programme is tabulated on the Florida nursing programme 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 enrolment agreement, the catalogue and the student and programme 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 enrolment 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.

A school outside the federal reporting system

Quest does not appear in the federal IPEDS directory, so it is not a Title IV participant and the usual public data on enrolment, completion and outcomes does not exist for it. That has two consequences worth knowing. The Board of Nursing pass-rate report becomes close to the only published measure of how the programme performs, which raises its evidential value. And because the school is licensed by the Florida Commission for Independent Education rather than supervised federally, the CIE complaint route is the regulatory lever available — often faster and more responsive than litigation for a school of this size.

Where a Quest case is filed

Tampa is in Hillsborough County, in the Middle District of Florida, assigned by Local Rule 1.04(a) to the Tampa Division — subject to any forum or arbitration term in the enrolment agreement.

What can a student defense lawyer do here?

  • Resolve the arbitration question first, from the agreement the student actually signed.
  • Assemble the enrolment agreement, catalogue and programme 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 authorise.
  • 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 defence page.

Other Florida nursing 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 nursing programs:

Common questions about Quest Nursing Education Center cases

What was Quest’s pass rate?

60.00% of 30 first-time candidates in 2025 — eighteen passes and twelve failures — against a statutory floor of 76.05%.

The school is not in federal databases. What does that mean?

It is not a Title IV participant, so the usual public data on enrolment and outcomes does not exist. The Board of Nursing pass-rate report becomes close to the only published performance measure, and the Commission for Independent Education is the regulator to complain to.

Is a CIE complaint worth making?

Often, yes — and it can be quicker than litigation for a small school. It also sits alongside a civil claim rather than replacing it, so making one does not give up anything.

Which court covers Tampa?

The Middle District of Florida, Tampa Division. Hillsborough County is assigned to Tampa by Local Rule 1.04(a).