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Religious private schools

According to §4(1) of the Private Schools Act, private schools can be established and run by:

 morally reliable Austrian citizens,
 public bodies corporate and legally recognised churches and religious societies,
 any other domestic legal entity whose representatives are morally reliable.

The latter category comprises all other religious communities than legally recognised ones, including registered confessional communities.

S. 14 leg. cit. sets forth requirements which the schools must meet in order to get bestowed public status. Hereby, schools of territorial units, legally recognised churches and religious societies and other public bodies corporate are automatically considered to guarantee correct and appropriate education; whereas other schools are individually scrutinised.

Ss. 17, 18 leg. cit. entitle public status schools of legally recognised churches and religious societies to public subsidies for the personnel. Not only schools that are directly run by these bodies corporate, but also schools established by associations, foundations and funds, which are recognised by the competent ecclesiastical authority, are considered such confessional private schools entitled to the subsidies necessary to fulfil the curriculum as far as the number of pupils and teachers corresponds to those of similar public schools.
Subsidies for other schools are left to the competent minister’s discretion.

Sources and further information:
Konjecic, Erwin, “Privatschulen”, in Andreas Kowatsch / Florian Pichler / Daniel Tibi / Harald Tripp (Hg.), 111 Begriffe des österreichischen Religionsrechts, Erlangen, 2022, pp. 263-266.

D 4 September 2023    ARobert Wurzrainer AWolfgang Wieshaider

CNRS Unistra Dres Gsrl

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