Introduction

The Scholar Snapp School Info API is a high-performance source of current information about schools and colleges.

Overview

Data Overview

The system provides general and directory information about schools and colleges such as:

• School Name
• NCES Code
• CEEB Code
• Physical Address
• Mailing Address
• Web Address
• School Type
• District Information
• ...and more.

The data is from a variety of public sources such as the U.S. DoE NCES, College Board, school websites, and district websites. The data is refreshed annually, and is updated and corrected throughout the year.

API Overview

Endpoints

Most client systems will only interact with only two read-only endpoints. A "Schools" endpoint that provides complete detail about one or more schools, and a "School Directory Entries" endpoint that provides a compact view of school info. 

The Schools Endpoint

The Schools endpoint (at /schools) provides complete detail about a single school or a list of schools. This is suitable for scenarios such as auto-filling a form based on a school characteristic or displaying a set of school locations on a map or similar. The details also contain both an NCES and CEEB code, so these entries can serve as a crosswalk of that data.

An example data payload:

[
  {
    "snappId": "fd5b751b-7308-4f56-91c1-e0e08a129d4c",
    "ncesId": 480894000294,
    "ceebCode": 440320,
    "name": "Stephen F. Austin High School",
    "aka": [
      "Austin High School"
    ],
    "address": {
      "addressLine1": "715 West Cesar Chavez",
      "addressLine2": "Building A",
      "city": "Austin",
      "state": "TX",
      "zip": "78703-4699"
    },
    "mailingAddress": {
      "addressLine1": "715 West Cesar Chavez",
      "addressLine2": "Building A",
      "city": "Austin",
      "state": "TX",
      "zip": "78703-4699"
    },
    "phone": "512-414-2505",
    "charter": false,
    "snappSchoolType": "High school",
    "ncesDistrictId": 4808940,
    "stateSchoolId": "TX-227901-227901002",
    "stateDistrictId": "TX-227901",
    "latitude": 30.30825,
    "longitude": -97.74757,
    "districtName": "Austin Independent School District",
    "website": "https://www.example.edu"
  }
]

The School Directory Entries Endpoint

The School Directory Entries Endpoint (at /schoolDirectoryEntries) provides a compact view of schools. Its main purpose is for uses where high performance is essential and only basic information is required. Examples include populating a list for an auto-complete form field, or displaying a long list of school names for the user. Once a user makes a selection, the client system will typically make a call to the /schools endpoint if more details are required.

An example data payload:

[
  {
    "snappId": "fd5b751b-7308-4f56-91c1-e0e08a129d4c",
    "name": "Col. Stephen F. Austin High School",
    "city": "Austin",
    "state": "TX"
  }
]

API Feature Overview

The API has a simple-but-robust set of features:

• Searching. Client systems can search by a number of fields such as School Name, CEEB Code, NCES Code, City, State and similar.
• Sorting. Client systems can sort by several fields, including name, city, state.
• Limits and Paging. The system returns a "page" of 25 records by default, but client systems can define their own page limits. The API response includes paging helper information such as total results, the current page of data, and so forth.

Getting Started

Overview of Terms

This section provides a human-readable summary of terms.

• The School Info API is currently provided free to programs and projects of the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation.
• The service and the data it contains are provided as-is, with no warranty.
• Neither Scholar Snapp nor the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation has any liability associated with use of the service.
• Scholar Snapp reserves the right to change any of these terms at any time.
• Should Scholar Snapp discontinue this service or require a major change in these terms, we'll make every effort to provide notice in advance of the change. But, as our lawyers will tell you, we cannot guarantee it.

Contact 

To learn more and obtain client system credentials to access the API, send an e-mail to ContactUs@ScholarSnapp.org.