Southern Illinois News

Students in Johnson County districts had a truancy rate of 6.7% 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 5.3%.

There were 1,698 students enrolled in Johnson County districts in the 2021-22 school year, of which 114 students were absent throughout the year.

The districts located in the county had a dropout rate 3.8%, which was 1.4% higher than the year before.

Across the county, Cypress School District 64 suffered the most truancy issues (15.3%) in the 2021-22 school year. Meanwhile, Vienna School District 55 successfully recorded the lowest truancy rate in the region (5.2%).

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 Johnson 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
Cypress School District 64	105	15.3%
Vienna High School District 133	316	10.8%
Goreville Community Unit School District 1	626	8.6%
Vienna School District 55	384	5.2%