specification: API Commons Lifecycle
specificationVersion: '0.1'
provider: Federal Student Aid
providerId: federal-student-aid
generated: '2026-09-09'
method: searched
source: https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/data/api-documentation/
modified: '2026-09-09'
description: >-
  Lifecycle posture for the College Scorecard API, the one publicly callable
  surface on this Federal Student Aid record — how it is versioned, what the
  Department commits to, and what it does not publish.
scope:
  api: College Scorecard API
  aid: federal-student-aid:college-scorecard
versioning:
  scheme: path
  current: v1
  path_segment: /ed/collegescorecard/v1/
  stability: stable
  history: >-
    v1 is the only version the API has ever exposed; the api.data.gov path has been
    unchanged since launch.
  platform_version: 3.6.1
  platform_version_source: >-
    Footer of https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/data/api-documentation/, fetched 2026-09-09.
  data_versioning: >-
    Data is versioned by year prefix in the field path (2018.earnings.*) with a
    "latest" alias. Because metrics publish on different schedules, "latest" is
    per-metric rather than per-record.
change_log:
  published: true
  url: https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/data/changelog/
  releases_url: https://github.com/RTICWDT/college-scorecard/releases
  cadence: irregular, roughly 3-5 dated updates per year
  see: changelog/federal-student-aid-changelog.yml
deprecation:
  policy_published: false
  sunset_header: false
  deprecation_header: false
  rfc8594: false
  deprecated_operations: []
  note: >-
    No deprecation policy, no Sunset or Deprecation headers, no advance notice
    commitment. Data variables have been re-derived and, in at least one case,
    corrected in place (the SCORECARD_SECTOR truncation fix of 2025-05-21) without a
    versioned migration path. A consumer learns about a change by reading the change
    log after the fact.
status_page:
  published: false
  url: null
  probed:
    - url: https://status.data.gov/
      status: 0
      note: DNS does not resolve.
  note: >-
    Neither the Department nor api.data.gov publishes a status page or uptime
    history for this API. Availability is unobservable to a consumer except by
    calling it.
sla:
  published: false
  uptime_commitment: null
  support_response_commitment: null
  note: >-
    No SLA. This is a free federal open-data service; support is best-effort by
    email.
support:
  email: scorecarddata@rti.org
  community: http://opendata.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/collegescorecard
  press: press@ed.gov
  note: >-
    Support is operated by RTI International, the Department's contractor for the
    College Scorecard platform.
maturity: stable
retirement_risk:
  level: policy-dependent
  note: >-
    Continuity depends on federal appropriations and Departmental policy rather than
    on a commercial roadmap. The Department publishes no commitment to keep the API
    running and no notice period if it stops.