Global News Wire
August 28, 2026
SACRAMENTO, Calif., Aug. 28, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — On August 24, Nightingale College filed a lawsuit against the California Board of Registered Nursing (BRN), challenging the board’s unlawful application of licensing standards. The action has left hundreds of Nightingale nursing graduates unable to sit for the national NCLEX-RN examination, preventing them from beginning their nursing careers in California.
The lawsuit filed in Sacramento County Superior Court challenges the BRN for applying two standards that Nightingale alleges are not authorized by California law and were never lawfully adopted as regulations to out-of-state licensure applicants:
- A 500-hour direct-patient-care threshold drawn from a statute that governs only California-approved in-state nursing programs.
- The BRN is enforcing an undefined “concurrency” for which it has refused to provide a workable definition, despite Nightingale’s requests for clarification.