2007 Minnesota Statutes

136A.657 EXEMPTION; RELIGIOUS SCHOOLS.
    Subdivision 1. Exemption. Any school or any department or branch of a school (a) which is
substantially owned, operated or supported by a bona fide church or religious organization; (b)
whose programs are primarily designed for, aimed at and attended by persons who sincerely hold
or seek to learn the particular religious faith or beliefs of that church or religious organization;
and (c) whose programs are primarily intended to prepare its students to become ministers of, to
enter into some other vocation closely related to, or to conduct their lives in consonance with,
the particular faith of that church or religious organization, is exempt from the provisions of
sections 136A.61 to 136A.71.
    Subd. 2. Limitation. This exemption shall not extend to any school or to any department
or branch of a school which through advertisements or solicitations represents to any students
or prospective students that the school, its aims, goals, missions or purposes or its programs are
different from those described in subdivision 1. This exemption shall not extend to any school
which represents to any student or prospective student that the major purpose of its programs
is to prepare the student for a vocation not closely related to that particular religious faith, or to
provide the student with a general educational program recognized by other schools or the broader
educational, business or social community as being substantially equivalent to the educational
programs offered by schools or departments or branches of schools which are not exempt from
sections 136A.61 to 136A.71, and rules adopted pursuant thereto.
    Subd. 3. Scope. Nothing in sections 136A.61 to 136A.71, or the rules adopted pursuant
thereto, shall be interpreted as permitting the office to determine the truth or falsity of any
particular set of religious beliefs.
    Subd. 4. Statement required; religious nature. Any degree awarded upon completion of a
religiously exempt program shall include descriptive language to make the religious nature of
the award clear.
History: 1978 c 603 s 7; 1995 c 212 art 3 s 59; 2007 c 144 art 3 s 9