Caught Between a School and a Licensing Board: The Nightingale College Lawsuit

Hundreds of nursing graduates in California are currently waiting to find out whether they can take the exam that stands between them and their nursing licenses.

They graduated from Nightingale College, an accredited nursing school based in Utah. Having completed a nursing program with a history of sending graduates to California, they expected their next step to be straightforward: receive authorization from the California Board of Registered Nursing (BRN), take the NCLEX-RN, and, if they passed, move forward with their careers.

Instead, their applications are caught in the middle of a lawsuit between their school and the agency responsible for deciding whether they are eligible for licensure.

What Happened?

After years of accepting graduates from Nightingale, the California BRN decided that the College did not meet the requirements for out-of-state nursing programs seeking licensure in California and would not allow the most recent class of graduates to take their NCLEX exam. The College disagreed and, on August 24, 2026, sued the California BRN and its Executive Officer in Sacramento County Superior Court.

Nightingale alleges that the BRN began applying two requirements to its graduates that the College says were not properly adopted or previously applied in this manner: a requirement for 500 hours of direct patient care and a requirement for "concurrency" of classroom and clinical instruction. According to Nightingale's complaint, the BRN had previously approved applications from nearly 2,000 Nightingale graduates and that therefore, the Board's current approach represents a significant change in how California's requirements are being applied to its graduates.

According to the BRN, requirements for out-of-state nursing schools must be “equivalent” to those for in-state schools, which include the 500 hours of direct patient care and the concurrency requirement. They also dispute the use of virtual reality training as counting toward the 500 hours.

The People in the Middle

Powerlessly stuck in the middle of the dispute are the people most immediately affected by it: the graduates.

According to reporting by Nurse.org, 873 Nightingale graduates currently have applications on hold. For those graduates, this isn't an abstract debate about administrative law. It may mean a job they cannot start. A paycheck they expected but cannot earn. Student loans coming due while their professional future remains uncertain. The possibility of having to go back to school.

Most students who enter nursing school reasonably expect that if they complete an accredited educational program, someone will tell them clearly what additional requirements they must satisfy to obtain a license in the state where they intend to practice.

When the school and the regulator disagree about those requirements, the individual professional can suddenly find themselves carrying the consequences of a dispute they did not create.

Who Is Right?

We don't know. A court will ultimately determine the legal issues.

Nightingale initially asked the court for a temporary restraining order that would have required immediate action while the lawsuit proceeded. The judge denied that request, without resolving the merits of the underlying dispute.

Nightingale has since sought a preliminary injunction, another form of temporary relief while the litigation continues. As of September 9, the hearing is scheduled for January, although the College says it is asking the court for an earlier date.

Regulatory Clarity Matters

Licensing boards are charged with protecting the public. That may sometimes require them to change course when it appears that previous policies were not fair or safe. But if standards change, or an existing standard begins to be interpreted differently, the people whose careers depend on those standards need a meaningful opportunity to understand what has changed and what they can do about it.

That makes transparency and predictability especially important.

And when schools and regulators disagree, professionals need there to be a quicker path to resolution so they are not stuck in limbo.