Arizona College of Nursing Lawsuit: Texas Claims and State Probation

The main lawsuit against Arizona College of Nursing is Caine v. Eduvision, Inc., a 2022 federal case filed in the Northern District of Texas by former students of the Dallas campus. The plaintiffs accused the school’s parent company, Eduvision Inc., of fraud, deceptive trade practices, and misusing federal pandemic relief money meant for students. The case stalled after the school invoked arbitration clauses in student enrollment agreements. A separate state regulatory action in Arizona placed the Tempe BSN program on probation in 2022; that probation ended in February 2025.

What the Texas Students Allege

The suit was filed in August 2022 as Caine v. Eduvision, Inc., No. 3:22-cv-01713, with named plaintiffs Nancy Westbrook, Kristy Abercrombie, and Nisha Dhungana Silwa.¹ An amended complaint followed in October 2022.²

The core allegations fall into a few groups. The students say the Dallas campus told them credits would transfer to other institutions and that this turned out to be false. They say the school overcharged for credit hours and failed to deliver adequate instruction. They also say the school engineered the program to be harder to complete than it needed to be: testing students on material that had never been taught, marking correct answers wrong, and disqualifying students for background issues the school already knew about at the time of enrollment.²

Separately, the complaint accuses Eduvision of keeping CARES Act emergency relief funds that were supposed to be passed through to students. The seven legal claims are breach of contract, violations of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, fraud and fraud in the inducement, promissory estoppel, unjust enrichment, conversion and theft liability, and money had and received. The plaintiffs sought actual and economic damages, exemplary damages, attorney’s fees, and a jury trial.²

Where the Case Stands

According to reporting by New America, the lawsuit stalled after the school invoked mandatory arbitration clauses in students’ enrollment agreements.³ Arbitration clauses typically force students to resolve disputes individually in a private forum rather than in open court. The allegations in the complaint have not been tested in a public trial. None of the claims have been proven, and the school has not been found liable.

The Arizona State Probation

Separate from the Texas suit, the Arizona State Board of Nursing placed the Tempe campus BSN program on a minimum of 36 months of probation through a Consent Agreement effective May 25, 2022.⁴ The board’s findings described a program where corporate management had overridden educators.

Two weeks before the fall 2021 semester, the school dismissed 32 BSN-prepared clinical faculty members as part of a transition to faculty with master’s degrees. Internal warnings about staffing gaps were disregarded, and roughly 19% of clinical experiences were canceled between late August and mid-October 2021. The board also documented students being left unsupervised at clinical sites, including one episode in which faculty released students early for personal reasons and another in which faculty left the site during lunch. The board found that the Provost and Chief Operating Officer had made faculty and curriculum decisions without adequate input from the Dean or instructional staff. The BSN completion rate at Tempe had dropped to 56% in both 2020 and 2021, well below the 70% threshold set by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education.⁴

The consent order required an outside consultant to evaluate curriculum and governance, training for faculty and administrators, faculty-to-student ratios of 1:10 in clinicals and 1:30 in classrooms, and quarterly reports on admissions, attrition, exam changes, faculty ratios, and grievances. New admissions were technically suspended, with the suspension stayed as long as the school complied.⁴ The board reviewed compliance in late 2024 and terminated the probation on February 24, 2025.⁵

A Transparency Finding in Connecticut

The Arizona probation came up again in late 2022 when Connecticut regulators discovered it on their own. The Connecticut Board of Examiners for Nursing revoked portions of its earlier approvals for a planned East Hartford campus, saying board members had been unaware of the Arizona consent agreement when they first reviewed the application and citing a “lack of transparency” by the college.³ School officials told the Connecticut board they “would have notified you if it was relevant, if it was required by regulation, or if there was a request regarding” the Arizona agreement. The dispute was resolved by a January 2023 agreement in which both sides said they wished to avoid litigation, and the East Hartford campus opened later that month.⁶

Student Outcomes to Weigh

Several outcome figures have surfaced in the course of the regulatory and legal disputes. Between October 2018 and September 2021, the Tempe campus reported a 21% federal student loan default rate, and the institution reported a roughly 60% dropout rate, according to figures cited in Milwaukee Journal Sentinel opinion coverage. Tuition runs between $28,000 and $37,000 per year, not counting books, supplies, transportation, or living expenses.⁷

NCLEX-RN first-time pass rates at the school’s Arizona campuses have declined. The Phoenix campus went from 96% in 2023 to about 83% in 2025. Tempe went from nearly 93% to roughly 88%. Tucson went from 94% to about 84%. The Arizona statewide pass rate in 2025 is roughly 90% and the national rate is about 87%, so all three Arizona campuses now sit below the state average.⁸

Accreditation and Federal Aid Are Still in Place

The lawsuit and probation have not disturbed the school’s accreditation. The BSN program holds Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education accreditation, with a 10-year reaccreditation granted in June 2022, the maximum term available.⁹ All campuses are institutionally accredited by the Accrediting Bureau of Health Education Schools, a U.S. Department of Education-recognized agency.¹⁰ The school participates in federal student aid, including Pell Grants and federal student loans.¹¹ The CCNE reaccreditation was granted weeks after the Arizona board found Tempe’s completion rates “well below” CCNE standards, and no public adverse action from CCNE appears in the available record.

Who Operates the School

Arizona College of Nursing is operated by Eduvision Inc., which acquired it in 1996 when it was a small pharmacy technology training program. The BSN launched in 2013, and the school has grown to 26 campuses across 15 states, including Fort Worth and Atlanta locations opened in 2026. Nick Mansour has served as Chairman and CEO.¹²¹³ The school is legally unrelated to the University of Arizona or Arizona State University.¹⁴

1
CourtListener. Caine v. Eduvision, Inc.
2
Spectrum News 13. Plaintiffs’ First Amended Complaint, Caine v. Eduvision
3
New America. A For-Profit Nursing College Is Trying to Take Root in Wisconsin
4
Arizona State Board of Nursing. Arizona College Tempe BSN Program Consent Agreement for Probation
5
Arizona State Board of Nursing. Arizona College Tempe BSN Program Probation Termination
6
Hartford Business Journal. Arizona College of Nursing Gets Green Light to Open East Hartford Campus
7
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. For-Profit Colleges and Nursing Students in Milwaukee
8
Arizona State Board of Nursing. Statewide Annual NCLEX Pass Rates
9
Arizona College of Nursing. 10-Year CCNE Reaccreditation
10
Arizona College of Nursing. Accreditation and Affiliations
11
Arizona College. Admissions and Financial Aid
12
Arizona College of Nursing. About Us
13
Leadership Now Project. Nick Mansour
14
Wisconsin Examiner. For-Profit Nursing School Advances in Milwaukee, but Critics Say They Won’t Stop Fighting Project