South West Illinois News

Students in Randolph County districts had a truancy rate of 14.7% 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 20.5%.

There were 3,818 students enrolled in Randolph County districts in the 2021-22 school year, of which 563 students were absent throughout the year.

The districts located in the county had a dropout rate 4.5%, which was 1.4% higher than the year before.

Across the county, Sparta Community Unit School District 140 suffered the most truancy issues (26.6%) in the 2021-22 school year. Meanwhile, Steeleville Community Unit School District 138 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 Randolph 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
Sparta Community Unit School District 140	1,158	26.6%
Chester Community Unit School District 139	908	14.5%
Coulterville Unit School District 1	218	12.6%
Red Bud Community Unit School District 132	1,013	11.8%
Steeleville Community Unit School District 138	391	5.2%