Ed-Fi Technology Roadmap Update: Fall 2026

As we head into another exciting Ed-Fi Summit, the Ed-Fi Alliance has been solidifying its product roadmap and release schedule for 2027.

The schedule is relatively stable: we will continue with the pattern of 1-2 annual releases of each product, spaced out through the year. The product portfolio continues to evolve, including the capabilities served by each product. And the now-completed budget cycle helps us determine what / how much we can actually afford to build.

This update lays out what the Ed-Fi Alliance product team plans to deliver over the next several quarters, what we are deliberately keeping stable, and where the dates are still soft.

Our priorities, in order, are:

1. Data Standard alignment. Help agencies and vendors align to the core Ed-Fi Data Standard, and measure progress with the Metadata Catalog and Scoring Engine, comparing new scores against a baseline.
2. Data Standard 7.0. Ship a breaking-change release focused on priority domains, simplification, and state modifications that benefit three or more states.
3. Ed-Fi API 8 adoption. Deliver non-breaking features in the spring 8.2.0 and fall 8.3.0 releases, favoring work that lowers platform operating costs or vendor integration costs.
4. Administrative tooling and certification. Keep large-scale deployments cheap to administer, and continue certification automation and push-button sandbox management.
5. Stability for the existing platform. Keep the ODS/API, ODS Admin API, Admin App, and OneRoster service stable through routine maintenance and limited, approved enhancements while adoption moves to Ed-Fi API 8.

The detail lives in the Ed-Fi Technology Roadmap on GitHub. Each section below links to the issue that tracks the work, so you can follow along or comment.

Release	Target	Tracking
API Publisher 1.5	2026-Q4	#147
OneRoster API Service 1.1	2026-Q4	#168
ODS Admin API 2.5	2026-Q4	#175
Admin App 4.2	2026-Q4	#176
Data Standard 6.2	2027-Q1	#166
ODS/API 7.3.3	2027-Q1	#169
Ed-Fi API 8.2.0	2027-Q2	#125
Data Standard 7.0	2027-Q2	#46

Data Standard

We are working on two releases in parallel: a non-breaking 6.2 and a breaking 7.0. Splitting them lets us get easy wins to source systems now without making anyone wait for, or absorb, breaking changes.

Data Standard 6.2

Data Standard 6.2 is targeted for 2027-Q1, early enough to support school year 2027-2028. It carries workforce-related changes and a handful of easy wins that improve integrations between source systems and the API. The issue currently tracks these items:

• Multiple section enrollment for Course Enrollment and Course Transcript
• Setting up a Responsible Contact for Special Education
• Making educationOrganizationCategories optional on EducationOrganization sub-types
• Individual Graduation Plan (IGP)
• A Validation API

Everything in 6.2 is non-breaking. If your integration works on 6.1 today, it should keep working.

Data Standard 6.2 will be delivered to the community first via ODS/API 7.3.3, and will be included in the Ed-Fi API v8.2 release by default. Bonus: the architecture of Ed-Fi API v8 will make it easy to swap this in place of Data Standard 6.1 in the Ed-Fi API v8.1 release for anyone who does not want to wait a few months more for 8.2.

Data Standard 7.0

Data Standard 7.0 is the breaking-change release. We have three goals for it: simplify integrations for both incoming and outgoing data, reduce the number of state extensions, and clarify the intended usage of existing entities. The issue currently tracks 13 sub-issues; the candidate changes include:

• Staff domain and Performance Evaluation domain updates
• Special Education and Intervention domain updates
• Program updates and Section historical begin/end dates
• Replacing GenerationCodeSuffix with GenerationCode
• Student Application (charter waitlist) support
• Multiple bus routes for StudentTransportation, and an education organization reference on StudentContactAssociation

Scope is still moving. The issue's sub-issue list changed as recently as early October.

We are targeting 2027-Q2 for the 7.0 release, which will only be available for Ed-Fi API v8; it will not be released via ODS/API.

Metadata Catalog and Scoring Engine

For the past two years, the Alliance has been developing its NACHOS scoring algorithm for measuring and reducing complexity in state Ed-Fi Implementations. Gathering state data collection requirements from disparate source documents, each with its own format, is painstaking. Assigning complexity scores is also painstaking. And then we have to make use of that information.

To that end, we have been building what we call our Metadata Catalog — a database, ingestion process, and web-based dashboard for storing and reading the state specifications — and a rules engine that automates the heavy lifting around score setting (with capability to allow human judgment overrides).

To date this has been an internally-focused tool. In 2027 we expect to turn this outward, at least in part, to allow state leaders to study their own complexity scores and thus to better understand how they can drive down vendor integration costs through greater standardization.

The scores will only be available to states. They will not be publicly viewable, and will not be shared with vendors at this time.

Along with our governance committees, we will explore the possibility of anonymous browsing of the ingested data collection rules without revealing details about the complexity analysis.

Because this work is still being shaped at publication time, we have not yet added this to the public roadmap views in GitHub.

Ed-Fi API v8 Platform

Ed-Fi API v8.2.0 is targeted for 2027-Q2 as a quick follow-up to v8.1. It adds lineage tracking and brings OneRoster into the same application. The Alliance's 8.x plan also calls for a fall 8.3.0 release; we have not yet committed scope for it.

The v8.2.0 feature list:

• Integrated OneRoster. One application serves both the Ed-Fi and OneRoster endpoints, supporting the OneRoster 1.2 specification.
• Lineage tracking in GET output, so consumers can see where a record came from.
• Improved SQL Server performance.
• Universal Vendor ID, tracked as a sub-issue.

The design constraint matters more than the feature list: v8.2.0 must minimize data structure changes, and where a change is unavoidable, it must come with an easy upgrade path. We want operators to take this release without a migration project.

Priority for the 8.x line goes to work that reduces platform operating costs or vendor integration costs. If a proposed feature does neither, expect it to wait.

ODS/API Platforms

The Ed-Fi ODS/API and the OneRoster service remain supported while adoption shifts to Ed-Fi API v8. We are keeping both stable, with routine maintenance and limited, approved enhancements.

ODS/API 7.3.3

ODS/API 7.3.3 is targeted for 2027-Q1 (no later than February). It is a maintenance release with four items:

• Support for Data Standard 6.2
• Bug fixes
• Caching performance improvements (still up for debate; let us know if these are important to you)
• NuGet package updates

OneRoster service

The Ed-Fi OneRoster API Service is targeted for 2026-Q4 and is in progress. The version numbers are easy to confuse, so to be precise: the service releases next as version 1.1.0, and it supports the OneRoster 1.2 standard. The software version and the standard version are independent. The release adds support for Data Standard 6.1, alongside the existing 4.0 and 5.2 support, plus bug fixes and performance improvements.

For the longer term, the OneRoster implementation is being merged into the Ed-Fi API v8 applications (see v8.2.0 above), so the standalone service is where we expect to stabilize rather than expand.

Tools

API Publisher

API Publisher 1.4 shipped on October 22 with Ed-Fi API v8 support, cursor paging, and resumable runs. API Publisher 1.5 is targeted for 2026-Q4. It collects the work that did not fit into 1.4:

• Configuration file improvements, including JSON configuration support
• Expanded test coverage, which may surface edge-case bugs
• Documentation and build refactoring and cleanup

ODS Admin API and Admin App

We expect to release ODS Admin API 2.5 and Admin App 4.2 in December or January. Both add support for managing the vendor certification process. Our tooling investment goes toward keeping administration cost-effective for large-scale deployments, and toward certification automation and push-button sandbox management. The features in these releases are primarily for internal consumption, though state education agencies could also adopt them for their own localized certification.

Important Considerations

• Dates are targets, not commitments. Milestones are quarterly, and scope has shifted in the issues we cite here as recently as a few weeks ago. Check the linked issues for current status.
• Data Standard 7.0 is breaking. Plan for impact on integrations and extensions, and review the candidate changes that matter to you now.
• AI-assisted development and security testing. We are expanding AI-assisted development practices, with emphasis on security, quality, and timeliness over output volume. For security assurance, we are combining targeted vendor-led testing with AI-based testing aligned to each release.
• Documentation. We are working to improve the quality, consistency, and integration of documentation on docs.ed-fi.org and the Fiona community support agent.
• Not committed. The Ed-Fi Software Development Kit for AI coding assistants and the Ed-Fi MCP prototype are exploratory. We will pursue them opportunistically or with separate funding, not as core deliverables.

What Comes Next

The most useful feedback right now is on Data Standard 7.0 scope. If a state extension of yours would benefit other states, or a proposed breaking change would hurt your integration, say so on the issue or in the community channels. Three or more states needing the same change is the bar we are using, so that evidence moves things.