South Central Reporter

Students in Marion County districts had a truancy rate of 8.6% in the 2021-22 school year, according to the Illinois State Board of Education. This was a decrease from the previous school year's rate of 16.4%.

There were 6,173 students enrolled in Marion County districts in the 2021-22 school year, of which 529 students were absent throughout the year.

The districts located in the county had a dropout rate 7.7%, which was 2.6% higher than the year before.

Across the county, Centralia School District 135 suffered the most truancy issues (15.8%) in the 2021-22 school year. Meanwhile, Salem School District 111 successfully recorded the lowest truancy rate in the region (2.5%).

Students are generally considered chronically truant if they miss 5% or more of the total number of school days in a year without acceptable excuses.

The main offices of all districts mentioned in the story are located in cities associated with Marion County.

In 2022, Illinois had 1,925,415 students enrolled in a total of 3,977 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 many years, reflecting demographic changes. Combined public and private K-12 enrollment dropped 3% between the 2019–2020 and 2020–2021 school years (60,900 students), far more than the typical 0.5% to 1.5% annual enrollment declines in Illinois over the last five years.

District	No. of students enrolled	Chronic truancy rates
Centralia School District 135	1,121	15.8%
Odin Public School District 722	237	14%
Centralia High School District 200	849	13.4%
South Central Community Unit School District 401	612	9.9%
Sandoval Community Unit School District 501	410	9.8%
Salem Community High School District 600	691	8.8%
Central City School District 133	360	6.1%
Patoka Community Unit School District 100	221	4.8%
Salem School District 111	913	2.5%