Southern Illinois News

Students in Union County districts had a truancy rate of 5.5% 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 7.6%.

There were 2,524 students enrolled in Union County districts in the 2021-22 school year, of which 140 students were absent throughout the year.

The districts located in the county had a dropout rate 3%, which was -0.8% lower than the year before.

Across the county, Dongola Unit School District 66 suffered the most truancy issues (12.3%) in the 2021-22 school year. Meanwhile, Cobden School Unit District 17 successfully recorded the lowest truancy rate in the region (3.2%).

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 Union 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
Dongola Unit School District 66	237	12.3%
Shawnee Community Unit School District 84	269	9.8%
Anna Jonesboro Community High School District 81	504	5.6%
County of Union School District 43	345	5.5%
Anna Community Consolidated School District 37	568	5.3%
Cobden School Unit District 17	463	3.2%