South Central Reporter

Students in Christian County districts had a truancy rate of 15.1% in the 2021-22 school year, according to the Illinois State Board of Education. This was an increase over the previous school year's rate of 14.9%.

There were 4,200 students enrolled in Christian County districts in the 2021-22 school year, of which 636 students were absent throughout the year.

The districts located in the county had a dropout rate 8%, which was 4.9% higher than the year before.

Across the county, South Fork School District 14 suffered the most truancy issues (22.6%) in the 2021-22 school year. Meanwhile, Edinburg Community Unit School District 4 successfully recorded the lowest truancy rate in the region (5.5%).

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 Christian 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
South Fork School District 14	307	22.6%
Taylorville Community Unit School District 3	2,247	20.5%
Pana Community Unit School District 8	1,145	11.4%
Morrisonville Community Unit School District 1	277	6.5%
Edinburg Community Unit School District 4	224	5.5%