Chamberlain College of Nursing: Lawsuits, Sweet v. Cardona, Probation

Students searching for a Chamberlain College of Nursing lawsuit will find a mixed record: the school, now called Chamberlain University, has won the discrimination and pandemic tuition-refund cases brought against it in federal court, but it appears on a federal student-loan settlement list tied to its former parent company’s deceptive advertising, has two campuses under state nursing board probation, and continues to draw consumer complaints.

Discrimination Suit Ended in Summary Judgment for the School

In 2016, former nursing student Joseph Agunbiade sued Chamberlain in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana. He alleged intentional discrimination based on race, color, and national origin under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, and sex discrimination under Title IX, claiming the school held him to more demanding standards than his white female classmates. He failed two courses and withdrew from the program.¹

Chamberlain countered that Agunbiade’s grades reflected legitimate academic and safety concerns, including patient safety errors, an inability to correctly read medical equipment, and a failure to follow clinical instructions. The court also found he had not shown that the classmates he compared himself to were similarly situated in academic performance. On August 24, 2018, U.S. District Judge William T. Lawrence granted summary judgment for Chamberlain, concluding that no reasonable fact-finder could determine the adverse actions were motivated by race, national origin, or sex.¹

COVID Tuition Refund Case Was Dismissed and Affirmed on Appeal

When the pandemic forced Chamberlain to shift to remote learning in March 2020, student Tanesia Dean sued in the Northern District of Ohio, alleging breach of contract and unjust enrichment on behalf of a proposed class. She argued she had paid for in-person instruction and clinical experience she never received, and sought a refund of tuition and fees.²

The contract killed the case. Chamberlain’s enrollment agreement did not guarantee in-person education and reserved the university’s right to “revise, add, or delete courses” and modify instructional methods due to circumstances outside its control, including “natural occurrences.” Because that agreement was the governing contract, the district court declined to look at university catalogs or handbooks for additional promises and dismissed the suit.³

In June 2022, the Sixth Circuit unanimously affirmed. Circuit Judge Bernice Bouie Donald wrote that Dean had received value in the form of academic credit, instruction, grades, and continued progress toward her degree, so the enrollment agreement was not illusory. Her unjust enrichment claim failed because she never alleged that tuition would have been lower for online-only enrollment or that mandatory fees were tied to specific facilities she did not use.³

Chamberlain Is on the Sweet v. Cardona Settlement List

Chamberlain appears on “Exhibit C” of the class-action settlement in Sweet v. Cardona, now Sweet v. McMahon, a Northern District of California case involving borrower defense to repayment claims against hundreds of colleges.⁴ Its inclusion is tied to its history as a subsidiary of DeVry Education Group, later Adtalem Global Education, which in 2016 settled major enforcement actions with the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of Education over deceptive advertising about graduate employment rates.⁵ The regulatory conduct at issue involved DeVry University, not Chamberlain’s nursing programs directly, but Chamberlain still landed on the list.

What that means for former students matters. Under the settlement, borrowers who filed borrower defense applications and attended an Exhibit C school are entitled to “full settlement relief” if the Department of Education did not issue a decision by January 28, 2026. Full relief includes discharge of the outstanding federal loans that were the subject of the application, refunds of amounts already paid toward those loans, and deletion of the associated tradeline from the borrower’s credit report.⁶ The Department was required to send eligibility notices by late March 2026, and approved borrowers should see relief delivered within one year.⁷

Operation Nightingale Credentials Review

Chamberlain was pulled into the fallout from Operation Nightingale, an FBI investigation into the sale of fraudulent nursing credentials at several now-closed Florida nursing schools that produced criminal charges against more than two dozen nursing school officials. Chamberlain reviewed its admissions records to identify current students and graduates who held credentials from six flagged schools: MedLife Institute West Palm Beach, Palm Beach School of Nursing, Sacred Heart International Institute, Siena College, Quisqueya School of Nursing, and Quisqueya Health Care Academy.⁸

The university sent notices warning affected individuals that it would “take appropriate action, up to and including expulsion and rescission of earned degrees” against anyone found to have used fraudulent credentials to gain admission. The total number of students affected, and whether any were ultimately expelled or had degrees revoked, has not been publicly reported.

Two Campuses Are on State Nursing Board Probation

Chamberlain’s nursing programs hold national accreditation through the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education, but two campuses currently sit on probationary status with state regulators.⁹ The pre-licensure Bachelor of Science in Nursing program at the North Brunswick, New Jersey campus is on probation with the New Jersey Board of Nursing.¹⁰ The BSN program at the Miramar, Florida campus holds probationary approval from the Florida Board of Nursing.¹¹

Chamberlain discloses both on its website. Neither the specific reasons for probation nor the timelines for resolution are publicly detailed there. State boards commonly impose probation over issues like NCLEX pass rates or clinical program standards, and Chamberlain reports a 2025 national average first-time NCLEX pass rate of 79.75% across its BSN program.¹²

Student Complaints Follow a Pattern

Beyond formal litigation, Chamberlain has drawn a steady stream of consumer complaints. Its Better Business Bureau profile shows 97 complaints filed over the three years ending June 2026, with 26 in the most recent 12 months. Despite an A+ BBB rating, customer reviews average just 1.2 out of 5 stars across 30 reviews.¹³¹⁴

Recurring themes include disputes over clinical placement availability, unexpected billing after students were told they had zero balances, difficulty reaching administrative staff, and frustration with academic dismissals near the end of a program. Some students have alleged that passing grade thresholds were raised retroactively, causing course failures and additional tuition costs. Others reported that once clinical rotations begin, credits become effectively non-transferable, making it difficult to leave the program for another school.¹⁴ In its BBB responses, the university cites its Student Handbook and Academic Catalog as the basis for its policies and requires students to submit a FERPA release before it will discuss individual cases publicly.¹³

1
GovInfo. Agunbiade v. Chamberlain College of Nursing, No. 1:16-cv-01915
2
Jones Day. Chamberlain University Obtains Sixth Circuit Affirmance Dismissing Breach of Contract Lawsuit
3
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Dean v. Chamberlain University, No. 21-3821
4
StudentAid.gov. Sweet v. Cardona Settlement School List
5
The New York Times. Borrower Defense Schools Approved in Sweet Settlement
6
Project on Predatory Student Lending. Sweet v. McMahon Class Members
7
Project on Predatory Student Lending. Sweet v. McMahon
8
Student Discipline Defense. Chamberlain Nursing Students Face Florida Nursing School Credentials Investigation
9
Chamberlain University. Accreditation
10
Chamberlain University. North Brunswick Campus
11
Chamberlain University. Miramar Campus
12
Chamberlain University. Student Consumer Information
13
Better Business Bureau. Chamberlain University Complaints
14
Better Business Bureau. Chamberlain University Customer Reviews