diff --git a/credentials/apps/catalog/docs/decisions/0002-pathway-status.rst b/credentials/apps/catalog/docs/decisions/0002-pathway-status.rst
index ea9f8e9cc..ff7316513 100644
--- a/credentials/apps/catalog/docs/decisions/0002-pathway-status.rst
+++ b/credentials/apps/catalog/docs/decisions/0002-pathway-status.rst
@@ -11,4 +11,4 @@ Course discovery is now allowing pathways to be retired. The `course-discovery`
 
 Decision
 --------
-The catalog app will now synchronize the `Pathway`'s `status` attribute.  In the absence of a populated `status`  attribute, a pathway will be considered  to have the status of `published`.
+The catalog app will now synchronize the `Pathway`'s `status` attribute.
diff --git a/credentials/apps/catalog/migrations/0017_pathway_status_never_empty.py b/credentials/apps/catalog/migrations/0017_pathway_status_never_empty.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..4e03e7234
--- /dev/null
+++ b/credentials/apps/catalog/migrations/0017_pathway_status_never_empty.py
@@ -0,0 +1,42 @@
+# Generated by Django 4.2.19 on 2025-02-28 16:28
+
+from django.db import migrations, models
+from django.db.models import Q
+
+
+def populate_pathway_status(apps, schema_editor):
+    Pathway = apps.get_model("catalog", "Pathway")
+    for pathway in Pathway.objects.filter(Q(status__isnull=True) | Q(status__exact="")):
+        pathway.status = "published"
+        pathway.save()
+
+
+def unpopulate_pathway_status(apps, schema_editor):
+    """
+    We must specify a backwards migration even if it is empty, or else django will raise an
+    exception if we try to rollback this migration.
+
+    We don't want to nullify everything that's published, because we don't know
+    that's correct.
+    """
+    pass
+
+
+class Migration(migrations.Migration):
+
+    dependencies = [
+        ("catalog", "0016_pathway_status"),
+    ]
+
+    operations = [
+        migrations.RunPython(populate_pathway_status, unpopulate_pathway_status),
+        migrations.AlterField(
+            model_name="pathway",
+            name="status",
+            field=models.CharField(
+                choices=[("retired", "retired"), ("unpublished", "unpublished"), ("published", "published")],
+                default="published",
+                max_length=24,
+            ),
+        ),
+    ]
diff --git a/credentials/apps/catalog/models.py b/credentials/apps/catalog/models.py
index 8e29a6d01..2a8c5014f 100644
--- a/credentials/apps/catalog/models.py
+++ b/credentials/apps/catalog/models.py
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@
 
 from credentials.shared.constants import PathwayType
 
-from .data import ProgramStatus
+from .data import PathwayStatus, ProgramStatus
 
 
 logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
@@ -143,9 +143,11 @@ class Pathway(TimeStampedModel):
     email = models.EmailField()
     programs = SortedManyToManyField(Program, related_name="pathways")
 
-    # We're not migration-creating a status of all the old Pathways,
-    # we're just treating them as inherently 'published'.
-    status = models.CharField(max_length=24, null=True, blank=False)
+    status = models.CharField(
+        max_length=24,
+        choices=[(tag.value, tag.value) for tag in PathwayStatus],
+        default=PathwayStatus.PUBLISHED.value,
+    )
 
     class Meta:
         unique_together = (("site", "uuid"),)
diff --git a/credentials/apps/catalog/utils.py b/credentials/apps/catalog/utils.py
index d1decfd67..1ce839ee9 100644
--- a/credentials/apps/catalog/utils.py
+++ b/credentials/apps/catalog/utils.py
@@ -343,7 +343,7 @@ def _parse_pathway(self, data):
         self.add_item(self.PATHWAY, str(pathway.uuid))
 
         pathway.programs.clear()
-        if pathway.status in ("", PathwayStatus.PUBLISHED.value):
+        if pathway.status == PathwayStatus.PUBLISHED.value:
             for program_data in data["programs"]:
                 program = Program.objects.get(site=self.site, uuid=program_data["uuid"])
                 pathway.programs.add(program)
diff --git a/credentials/apps/records/tests/test_views.py b/credentials/apps/records/tests/test_views.py
index b97863aea..91de024dc 100644
--- a/credentials/apps/records/tests/test_views.py
+++ b/credentials/apps/records/tests/test_views.py
@@ -214,7 +214,6 @@ def test_email_content_complete(self):
         (PathwayStatus.PUBLISHED.value, 200),
         (PathwayStatus.UNPUBLISHED.value, 404),
         (PathwayStatus.RETIRED.value, 404),
-        ("", 200),
     )
     @ddt.unpack
     def test_pathway_must_be_published(self, pathway_status, http_status):
diff --git a/credentials/apps/records/views.py b/credentials/apps/records/views.py
index 67fe9c01d..b4af70a69 100644
--- a/credentials/apps/records/views.py
+++ b/credentials/apps/records/views.py
@@ -151,7 +151,7 @@ def post(self, request, **kwargs):
             Pathway,
             id=pathway_id,
             programs__uuid=program_uuid,
-            status__in=(PathwayStatus.PUBLISHED.value, ""),
+            status=PathwayStatus.PUBLISHED.value,
             pathway_type=PathwayType.CREDIT.value,
         )
         certificate = get_object_or_404(ProgramCertificate, program_uuid=program_uuid, site=request.site)