South Central Reporter

Hillsboro Community Unit School District 3 had the highest enrollment among Montgomery County districts, welcoming 1,563 students during the 2021-22 school year, according to the Illinois State Board of Education report.

Of all the students welcomed in the 2021-22 school year, 50.5% of them were boys, and 49.5% were girls.

Data also showed that the majority of students were white, making up 93% of the Hillsboro Community Unit School District 3's total enrollment.

Among the four districts in Montgomery County, Litchfield Community Unit School District 12 ranked second in enrollment numbers with 1,257 students, while Nokomis Community Unit School District 22 welcomed 593 students and ranked third in the 2021-22 school year.

Hillsboro Community Unit School District 3 roughly covers schools within Montgomery County with its main office in Hillsboro.

In the previous school year, Hillsboro Community Unit School District 3 also had the highest number of students among Montgomery County districts.

In 2022, Illinois had 1,925,415 students enrolled in a total of almost 4,000 schools. There were 130,467 teachers in the public schools, or roughly one teacher for every 15 students, compared to the national average of 1:16.

K-12 enrollment has been declining in Illinois for several years, influenced by demographic changes. Between the 2019–2020 and 2020–2021 school years, public and private K-12 enrollment fell by 3% (60,900 students), a significantly larger decline than the typical 0.5% to 1.5% annual decreases seen in the state over the last five years.

District	City (main office)	Total Enrollment
Hillsboro Community Unit School District 3	Hillsboro	1,563
Litchfield Community Unit School District 12	Litchfield	1,257
Nokomis Community Unit School District 22	Nokomis	593
Panhandle Community Unit School District 2	Raymond	443