NW Illinois News

Students in Ogle County districts had a truancy rate of 5.2% 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 18.2%.

There were 8,251 students enrolled in Ogle County districts in the 2021-22 school year, of which 429 students were absent throughout the year.

The districts located in the county had a dropout rate 3.6%, which was 1.6% higher than the year before.

Across the county, Rochelle Township High School District 212 suffered the most truancy issues (13.7%) in the 2021-22 school year. Meanwhile, Byron Community Unit School District 226 successfully recorded the lowest truancy rate in the region (2.4%).

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 Ogle 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
Rochelle Township High School District 212	895	13.7%
Rochelle Community Consolidated School District 231	1,511	6.1%
Forrestville Valley Community Unit School District 221	732	6.1%
Oregon Community Unit School District 220	1,467	5.8%
Meridian Community Unit School District 223	1,418	4.7%
Polo Community Unit School District 222	517	3.2%
Byron Community Unit School District 226	1,478	2.4%