Southern Illinois News

Union County schools welcomed 2,373 students in the 2023-24 school year, according to the Illinois State Board of Education.

This is a decrease of 3.4% from the previous school year, when there were 2,456 students enrolled in the county.

Union County had the 35th lowest enrollment numbers in the state.

Of all the students welcomed at the time, 51.2% identified as female, and 48.8% as male.

Most of the students enrolled in the county were white, representing 86.6% of its student body.

Within Union County, Anna-Jonesboro High School had the highest enrollment in the school year, welcoming 457 students.

As of the 2023-24 school year, Illinois public schools enrolled approximately 1.85 million students across nearly 4,000 schools. There was roughly one teacher for every 15 students, slightly better than the national average of 1:16.

K-12 enrollment has been declining in Illinois for many years, reflecting the state's demographic changes. Between the 2019–20 and 2022–23 school years, Illinois public school enrollment declined from approximately 1.98 million to 1.85 million students, a decrease of about 127,000 students or 6.4%. This decline is significantly higher than the typical annual decreases of 0.5% to 1.5% observed in the preceding years, reflecting broader demographic shifts within the state.

School	City	Enrollment
Anna Junior High School	Anna	244
Anna-Jonesboro High School	Anna	457
Cobden Elementary School	Cobden	217
Cobden High School	Cobden	135
Cobden Junior High School	Cobden	87
Davie Elementary School	Anna	121
Dongola Elementary School	Dongola	126
Dongola High School	Dongola	22
Dongola Junior High School	Dongola	43
Jonesboro Elementary School	Jonesboro	311
Lick Creek Elementary School	Buncombe	128
Lincoln Elementary School	Anna	204
Shawnee Elementary School	Wolf Lake	133
Shawnee High School	Wolf Lake	71
Shawnee Junior High School	Wolf Lake	74