State requirements / Minnesota
Minnesota parenting class requirement
8 hours, and only in contested cases
Where parents have not agreed on custody or a parenting time schedule, Minnesota requires a minimum of eight hours of orientation and education, and the statute says it may be taken online. In every other case it is up to the judge.
The requirement at a glance
| Who must attend | Where the parents have not agreed on custody or a parenting time schedule, the court must order both parents to attend. In every other case it is discretionary. Children may be ordered into a separate program, and a parent may self-refer without any court order at all. |
| Hours required | 8 minimum, contested cases |
| Deadline | Participation must begin before the initial case management conference and within 30 days after the first filing, or as soon as practicable given when classes are actually available. Read that carefully: it is a deadline to start, not to finish. The statute sets no completion date. |
| Authority | Minn. Stat. 518.157 |
| Fees and waivers | A sliding fee scale is mandatory here: the statute says program providers shall implement one. A party who qualifies for a filing-fee waiver is exempt from the program fee entirely, and the court either waives it or directs how it is paid. |
| Our price | $25 for one parent, $50 for both parents on the same case. Scholarship seats are funded by donors, so no parent is turned away for money. |
| Our registry status | On our active build and filing list. We will announce the day this state accepts us, and not a day before. |
What the law actually says
“the court shall order the parents of a minor child to attend or take online a minimum of eight hours in an orientation and education program”
Minn. Stat. 518.157, subd. 3(a)Quoted from the official text. Read it yourself at the source below.The part nobody explains
Filing your certificate
Usually nothing. The program reports the names of people who fail to attend to the court, rather than you filing a certificate. Keep your certificate anyway and check your own notices and orders, because some judges do ask for it.
If the deadline passes
The court may impose sanctions for failing to attend or complete the program. No decree is withheld.
Who approves providers in Minnesota
A new course is approved first by the State Court Administrator's Office, then accepted locally in each judicial district or county. Minnesota has ten judicial districts, so statewide reach is a sequence of approvals rather than one. In-person, online, and virtual courses all qualify if they meet the Supreme Court's minimum standards. The eight hour figure in section 518.157 subd. 3(a) binds the court's order, not the programme. The Supreme Court's own Parent Education Minimum Standards, paragraph G, say programmes "should be at least four to eight hours in length", and Minnesota's approved list carries both four hour and eight hour courses. Our Minnesota course is built and can be filed at its current length.
What you get from us
- The full course, start to finish, on a phone or a laptop, with your progress saved. Lifetime access, no thirty-day expiry and no extension fees.
- Your certificate the moment you finish, by email, free. A mailed paper copy is optional.
- Free instant verification for your court. A clerk or judge confirms the certificate at our verification page with no account and no phone call.
- Our acceptance guarantee: if your specific court declines this certificate, you get a full refund, no processing fee and no deadline to claim it.
Check us on the law
Every fact on this page traces to an official source. Read them yourself.