Southern Illinois News

Cobden School Unit District 17 welcomed 463 students in the 2021-22 school year, according to the Illinois State Board of Education report.

This is a 3.5% decrease from the previous school year.

Cobden Elementary School had the largest enrollment in the district with 196 students.

Cobden School Unit District 17 roughly covers schools within Union County and has a main office in Cobden.

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 three percent between the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 school year (60,900 students), far more than the typical 0.5 percent to 1.5 percent annual enrollment declines in Illinois over the last 5 years.