HOUSTON – A Fort Bend County woman’s federal lawsuit asserts that a for-profit healthcare and nursing school had a tendency of implementing new rules that were detrimental to its students.
Houston federal court records show that Patricia Villareal initiated litigation against Chamberlain College of Nursing & Health Sciences, Inc. on Jan. 28.
Villareal, who enrolled with the defendant in September 2014 to pursue a nursing degree, explains that she was not able to complete her program of study because of “unilateral changing systematic requirements.”
“Patricia entered Chamberlain with the understanding that she would take 3 years of courses, while paying for 3 years of tuition, and then she would have 3 opportunities to pass her final exit exam to receive her nursing degree,” court papers say. “Chamberlain then changed the requirements by removing the exit exam, and then again provided a new set of rules that allowed for two opportunities to pass some version of an exit exam, to finally a ‘one and done’ policy for obtaining a Chamberlain nursing degree.”
The institution two years ago reportedly enforced its latest rule change which eliminated a test called the “A4 Exam” and ordered the dismissal of any student who “no longer made at least a 72 on the Academic Assessment 3 Exam, had failed one course in their tenure prior to the Capstone.” It was under this policy that cost Villareal her enrollment with the respondent, the suit says.
According to Villareal, the college “received all the tuition for a student pursing a nursing degree, but then created new obstacles at the end of the program to prevent students from earning their nursing degree.”
A jury trial is requested.
The law firm Paranjpe & Mahadass LLP in Houston is representing the complainant.
Houston Division of the Southern District of Texas Case No. 4:19-CV-0300