NW Illinois News

Students in Jo Daviess County districts had a truancy rate of 3% 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 5.5%.

There were 3,109 students enrolled in Jo Daviess County districts in the 2021-22 school year, of which 93 students were absent throughout the year.

The districts located in the county had a dropout rate 6.3%, which was 3.5% higher than the year before.

Across the county, Warren Community Unit School District 205 suffered the most truancy issues (13.7%) in the 2021-22 school year. Meanwhile, Stockton Community Unit School District 206 successfully recorded the lowest truancy rate in the region (2.1%).

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 Jo Daviess 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
Warren Community Unit School District 205	367	13.7%
River Ridge Community Unit School District 210	441	4%
East Dubuque Community Unit School District 119	634	3.7%
Stockton Community Unit School District 206	537	2.1%