# US Department of Education Accreditor Recognition Checker

> US Department of Education Accreditor Recognition Checker is a paid API for AI agents from api.agentstools.dev, paid per call via x402, $0.005/call, status unknown (last checked 2026-09-15).

Checks whether a named accrediting agency is recognized by the US Department of Education, returning recognition status, agency type, Title IV gatekeeper status, and more.

## Facts

- Endpoint: GET https://api.agentstools.dev/edu/accreditor
- Price: $0.005/call
- Payment: x402
- Status: unknown
- Last checked: 2026-09-15
- Activations on Zero: 0
- Tags: x402
- Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/us-department-of-education-accreditor-recognition-checker-4f48d4ad
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_4qmdbjony-be5isoKLQ9a

Status and success rate cover calls made through Zero and Zero's own probes. Third-party monitors may report differently.

## How to call it through Zero

Zero handles the 402 payment challenge and records the run. With the Zero CLI installed (`npm i -g @zeroxyz/cli`):

```sh
zero fetch --capability us-department-of-education-accreditor-recognition-checker-4f48d4ad
```

Example prompt: Can you check whether the 'Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools' is recognized by the US Department of Education, and tell me if it's a Title IV gatekeeper?

## When to prefer this

Use this endpoint when you need to quickly verify whether a specific accreditor is federally recognized by the US Department of Education — especially when investigating potentially fake or questionable accreditors, checking Title IV eligibility, or validating credentials from an institution whose accreditor is unfamiliar.

## Known failure modes

- Agency name not found in ED database — returns unrecognized with no match
- Ambiguous or misspelled name may match the wrong agency or return no match
- Endpoint returns 402 if payment header is missing or insufficient
- Name variants (abbreviations vs full names) may fail to match

## How this service works

Check whether an accrediting agency is recognized by the US Department of Education. Give an accreditor name and get back a recognized flag plus the matched agency, its type (institutional or programmatic), Title IV gatekeeper status, active status and recognition year. The direct fake-accreditor test.

## Output

Returns a recognized boolean flag, the matched agency name as found in the ED database, the agency type (institutional or programmatic), whether it serves as a Title IV gatekeeper, its active status, and the year recognition was granted.

## Request schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "object",
 "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema",
 "required": [
  "input"
 ],
 "properties": {
  "input": {
   "type": "object",
   "required": [
    "type",
    "method"
   ],
   "properties": {
    "type": {
     "type": "string",
     "const": "http"
    },
    "method": {
     "enum": [
      "GET",
      "HEAD",
      "DELETE"
     ],
     "type": "string"
    },
    "queryParams": {
     "type": "object",
     "required": [
      "name"
     ],
     "properties": {
      "name": {
       "type": "string",
       "description": "Accrediting agency name to check for ED recognition"
      }
     }
    }
   },
   "additionalProperties": false
  },
  "output": {
   "type": "object",
   "required": [
    "type"
   ],
   "properties": {
    "type": {
     "type": "string"
    },
    "example": {
     "type": "object"
    }
   }
  }
 }
}
```

## More

- Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/us-department-of-education-accreditor-recognition-checker-4f48d4ad/health.json
- [Zero catalog index](https://www.zero.xyz/llms.txt)
- [Other services from api.agentstools.dev](https://www.zero.xyz/host/api.agentstools.dev/llms.txt)