Form 5578 Form 5578 Annual Certification of Racial Nondiscrimination for a P

Form

5578

(Rev. June 1998)

Annual Certification of Racial Nondiscrimination
for a Private School Exempt From Federal Income Tax

Department of the Treasury
Internal Revenue Service

1a

For IRS
use ONLY

(For use by organizations that do not file Form 990 or Form 990-EZ)

For the period beginning

,

OMB No. 1545-0213

and ending

,

Name of organization that operates, supervises, and/or controls school(s).

Address (number and street or P.O. box no., if mail is not delivered to street address)

©

1b Employer identification number

Room/suite

City or town, state, and ZIP + 4 (If foreign address, list city or town, state or province, and country. Include postal code.)

2a

Name of central organization holding group exemption letter covering the school(s). (If same as 1a above, write
“Same” and complete 2c.) If the organization in 1a above holds an individual exemption letter, write “Not Applicable.”

Address (number and street or P.O. box no., if mail is not delivered to street address)

Room/suite

2b Employer identification number

2c Group exemption number (see
instructions under Definitions)

City or town, state, and ZIP + 4 (If foreign address list city or town, state or province, and country. Include postal code.)
3a

Name of school. (If more than one school, write “See Attached,” and attach a list of the names, complete addresses,
including postal codes, and employer identification numbers of the schools.) If same as 1a above, write “Same.”

3b Employer identification number,
if any

Address (number and street or P.O. box no., if mail is not delivered to street address)

Room/suite

City or town, state, and ZIP + 4 (If foreign address, list city or town, state or province, and country. Include postal code.)

Under penalties of perjury, I hereby certify that I am authorized to take official action on behalf of the above school(s) and that to the best of my knowledge and belief
the school(s) has (have) satisfied the applicable requirements of sections 4.01 through 4.05 of Rev. Proc. 75-50, 1975-2 C.B. 587, for the period covered by this
certification.

(Signature)

(Type or print name and title.)

General Instructions

Definitions

This form is open to public inspection.
Section references are to the Internal Revenue
Code.

A racially nondiscriminatory policy as to
students means that the school admits the
students of any race to all the rights, privileges,
programs, and activities generally accorded or
made available to students at that school and
that the school does not discriminate on the
basis of race in the administration of its
educational policies, admissions policies,
scholarship and loan programs, and other
school-administered programs.
The IRS considers discrimination on the basis
of race to include discrimination on the basis of
color or national or ethnic origin.
A school is an educational organization that
normally maintains a regular faculty and
curriculum and normally has a regularly enrolled
body of pupils or students in attendance at the
place where its educational activities are
regularly carried on. The term includes primary,
secondary, preparatory, or high schools and
colleges and universities, whether operated as a
separate legal entity or as an activity of a church
or other organization described in Code section
501(c)(3). The term also includes preschools and
any other organization that is a school as
defined in Code section 170(b)(1)(A)(ii).
A central organization is an organization that
has one or more subordinates under its general
supervision or control. A subordinate is a
chapter, local, post, or other unit of a central
organization. A central organization may also be
a subordinate, as in the case of a state
organization that has subordinate units and is
itself affiliated with a national organization.

Purpose of Form
Form 5578 may be used by organizations that
operate tax-exempt private schools to provide
the Internal Revenue Service with the annual
certification of racial nondiscrimination required
by Rev. Proc. 75-50 (the relevant part of which is
reproduced in these instructions).

Who Must File
Every organization that claims exemption from
Federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of the
Internal Revenue Code and that operates,
supervises, or controls a private school or
schools must file a certification of racial
nondiscrimination. If an organization is required
to file Form 990, Return of Organization Exempt
From Income Tax, or Form 990-EZ, Short Form
Return of Organization Exempt From Income
Tax, either as a separate return or as part of a
group return, the certification must be made on
Schedule A (Form 990), Organization Exempt
Under Section 501(c)(3), rather than on this form.
An authorized official of a central organization
may file one form to certify for the school
activities of subordinate organizations that would
otherwise be required to file on an individual
basis, but only if the central organization has
enough control over the schools listed on the
form to ensure that the schools maintain a
racially nondiscriminatory policy as to students.

For Paperwork Reduction Act Notice, see back of form.

Cat. No. 42658A

(Date)

The group exemption number (GEN) is a
four-digit number issued to a central
organization by the IRS. It identifies a central
organization that has received a ruling from the
IRS recognizing on a group basis the exemption
from Federal income tax of the central
organization and its covered subordinates.

When To File
Under Rev. Proc. 75-50, a certification of racial
nondiscrimination must be filed annually by the
15th day of the 5th month following the end of
the organization’s calendar year or fiscal period.

Where To File
Mail Form 5578 to the Internal Revenue Service
Center, Ogden, UT 84201-0027.

Certification Requirement
Section 4.06 of Rev. Proc. 75-50 requires an
individual authorized to take official action on
behalf of a school that claims to be racially
nondiscriminatory as to students to certify
annually, under penalties of perjury, that to the
best of his or her knowledge and belief the
school has satisfied the applicable requirements
of sections 4.01 through 4.05 of the revenue
procedure, reproduced below:

Rev. Proc. 75-50
4.01 Organizational Requirements. A school must
include a statement in its charter, bylaws, or
other governing instrument, or in a resolution of
its governing body, that it has a racially
nondiscriminatory policy as to students and
therefore does not discriminate against
applicants and students on the basis of race,
color, and national or ethnic origin.
Form

5578

(Rev. 6-98)

Form 5578 (Rev. 6-98)

4.02 Statement of Policy. Every school must
include a statement of its racially
nondiscriminatory policy as to students in all its
brochures and catalogues dealing with student
admissions, programs, and scholarships. A
statement substantially similar to the Notice
described in paragraph (a) of subsection 1 of
section 4.03, infra, will be acceptable for this
purpose. Further, every school must include a
reference to its racially nondiscriminatory policy
in other written advertising that it uses as a
means of informing prospective students of its
programs. The following references will be
acceptable:
The (name) school admits students of any
race, color, and national or ethnic origin.
4.03 Publicity. The school must make its
racially nondiscriminatory policy known to all
segments of the general community served by
the school.
1. The school must use one of the following
two methods to satisfy this requirement:
(a) The school may publish a notice of its
racially nondiscriminatory policy in a newspaper
of general circulation that serves all racial
segments of the community. This publication
must be repeated at least once annually during
the period of the school’s solicitation for
students or, in the absence of a solicitation
program, during the school’s registration period.
Where more than one community is served by a
school, the school may publish its notice in
those newspapers that are reasonably likely to
be read by all racial segments of the
communities that it serves. The notice must
appear in a section of the newspaper likely to be
read by prospective students and their families
and it must occupy at least three column inches.
It must be captioned in at least 12 point
boldface type as a notice of nondiscriminatory
policy as to students, and its text must be
printed in at least 8 point type. The following
notice will be acceptable:

Notice Of Nondiscriminatory
Policy As To Students
The (name) school admits students of any race,
color, national and ethnic origin to all the rights,
privileges, programs, and activities generally
accorded or made available to students at the
school. It does not discriminate on the basis of
race, color, national and ethnic origin in
administration of its educational policies,
admissions policies, scholarship and loan
programs, and athletic and other
school-administered programs.
(b) The school may use the broadcast media
to publicize its racially nondiscriminatory policy if
this use makes such nondiscriminatory policy
known to all segments of the general community
the school serves. If this method is chosen, the
school must provide documentation that the
means by which this policy was communicated
to all segments of the general community was
reasonably expected to be effective. In this case,
appropriate documentation would include copies
of the tapes or script used and records showing
that there was an adequate number of
announcements, that they were made during
hours when the announcements were likely to be
communicated to all segments of the general
community, that they were of sufficient duration
to convey the message clearly, and that they
were broadcast on radio or television stations
likely to be listened to by substantial numbers of
members of all racial segments of the general
community. Announcements must be made
during the period of the school’s solicitation for
students or, in the absence of a solicitation
program, during the school’s registration period.

Page

Communication of a racially nondiscriminatory
policy as to students by a school to leaders of
racial groups as the sole means of publicity
generally will not be considered effective to
make the policy known to all segments of the
community.
2. The requirements of subsection 1 of this
section will not apply when one of the following
paragraphs applies:
(a) If for the preceding 3 years the enrollment
of a parochial or other church-related school
consists of students at least 75% of whom are
members of the sponsoring religious
denomination or unit, the school may make
known its racially nondiscriminatory policy in
whatever newspapers or circulars the religious
denomination or unit utilizes in the communities
from which the students are drawn. These
newspapers and circulars may be those
distributed by a particular religious denomination
or unit or by an association that represents a
number of religious organizations of the same
denomination. If, however, the school advertises
in newspapers of general circulation in the
community or communities from which its
students are drawn and paragraphs (b) and (c) of
this subsection are not applicable to it, then it
must comply with paragraph (a) of subsection 1
of this section.
(b) If a school customarily draws a substantial
percentage of its students nationwide or
world-wide or from a large geographic section or
sections of the United States and follows a
racially nondiscriminatory policy as to students,
the publicity requirement may be satisfied by
complying with section 4.02, supra. Such a
school may demonstrate that it follows a racially
nondiscriminatory policy within the meaning of
the preceding sentence either by showing that it
currently enrolls students of racial minority
groups in meaningful numbers or, when minority
students are not enrolled in meaningful numbers,
that its promotional activities and recruiting
efforts in each geographic area were reasonably
designed to inform students of all racial
segments in the general communities within the
area of the availability of the school. The
question whether a school satisfies the
preceding sentence will be determined on the
basis of the facts and circumstances of each
case.
(c) If a school customarily draws its students
from local communities and follows a racially
nondiscriminatory policy as to students, the
publicity requirement may be satisfied by
complying with section 4.02, supra. Such a
school may demonstrate that it follows a racially
nondiscriminatory policy within the meaning of
the preceding sentence by showing that it
currently enrolls students of racial minority
groups in meaningful numbers. The question
whether a school satisfies the preceding
sentence will be determined on the basis of the
facts and circumstances of each case. One of
the facts and circumstances that the Service will
consider is whether the school’s promotional
activities and recruiting efforts in each area were
reasonably designed to inform students of all
racial segments in the general communities
within the area of the availability of the school.
The Service recognizes that the failure by a
school drawing its students from local
communities to enroll racial minority group
students may not necessarily indicate the
absence of a racially nondiscriminatory policy as
to students when there are relatively few or no
such students in these communities. Actual
enrollment is, however, a meaningful indication
of a racially nondiscriminatory policy in a
community in which a public school or schools
became subject to a desegregation order of a
federal court or otherwise expressly became

2

obligated to implement a desegregation plan
under the terms of any written contract or other
commitment to which any Federal agency was a
party.
The Service encourages schools to satisfy the
publicity requirement by the methods described
in subsection 1 of this section, regardless of
whether a school considers itself within
subsection 2, because it believes these methods
to be the most effective to make known a
school’s racially nondiscriminatory policy. In this
regard it is each school’s responsibility to
determine whether paragraph (a), (b), or (c) of
subsection 2 applies to it. On audit, a school
must be prepared to demonstrate that the failure
to publish its racially nondiscriminatory policy in
accordance with subsection 1 of this section
was justified by the application to it of paragraph
(a), (b), or (c) of subsection 2. Further, a school
must be prepared to demonstrate that it has
publicly disavowed or repudiated any statements
purported to have been made on its behalf (after
November 6, 1975) that are contrary to its
publicity of a racially nondiscriminatory policy as
to students, to the extent that the school or its
principal official were aware of such statements.
4.04 Facilities and Programs. A school must
be able to show that all of its programs and
facilities are operated in a racially
nondiscriminatory manner.
4.05 Scholarship and Loan Programs. As a
general rule, all scholarship or other comparable
benefits procurable for use at any given school
must be offered on a racially nondiscriminatory
basis. Their availability on this basis must be
known throughout the general community being
served by the school and should be referred to
in the publicity required by this section in order
for that school to be considered racially
nondiscriminatory as to students. . . .
[S]cholarships and loans that are made pursuant
to financial assistance programs favoring
members of one or more racial minority groups
that are designed to promote a school’s racially
nondiscriminatory policy will not adversely affect
the school’s exempt status. Financial assistance
programs favoring members of one or more
racial groups that do not significantly derogate
from the school’s racially nondiscriminatory
policy similarly will not adversely affect the
school’s exempt status.
Paperwork Reduction Act Notice. We ask for
the information on this form to carry out the
Internal Revenue laws of the United States. You
are required to give us the information. We need
it to ensure that you are complying with these
laws.
The organization is not required to provide the
information requested on a form that is subject
to the Paperwork Reduction Act unless the form
displays a valid OMB control number. Books or
records relating to a form or its instructions must
be retained as long as their contents may
become material in the administration of any
Internal Revenue law. The rules governing the
confidentiality of this form are covered in Code
section 6104.
The time needed to complete and file this
form will vary depending on individual
circumstances. The estimated average time is
4 hours and 44 minutes. If you have comments
concerning the accuracy of this time estimate or
suggestions for making this form simpler, we
would be happy to hear from you. You can write
to the Tax Forms Committee, Western Area
Distribution Center, Rancho Cordova, CA
95743-0001. DO NOT send the form to this
address. Instead, see Where To File on page 1.