The Internal Revenue Service assigns each school a tax ID number for the purpose of tax administration, according to the Seattle PI. The federal government recognizes schools as business entities and therefore requires a tax identification number.
These numbers are available to the public, and individuals can request the tax ID number for use in tax filing and other related matters, notes the Seattle PI. It should be noted that schools may have multiple tax ID numbers, for state and federal purposes. Many schools have the information available on their websites, or the numbers can be found on the National Center for Education Statistics website.