NW Illinois News

Students in Stephenson County schools were truant 20.2% of the time in the 2021-22 school year, the Illinois State Board of Education reported. The truancy rate was lower than the previous school year.

There were 5,725 students enrolled in Stephenson County in the 2021-22 school year, meaning 1,158 students were absent throughout the year.

The dropout rate in the county was 9.7%, 3% higher than the year before.

Statewide, Hardin County schools suffered the most truancy issues (38.4%) in the 2021-22 school year. Meanwhile, Monroe County schools successfully recorded the lowest truancy rate in the region (3.1%).

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.

In 2022, Illinois had more than 1.9 million students enrolled in nearly 4,000 schools across 852 school districts. There were more than 350,000 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 three percent between the 2019–2020 and 2020–2021 school years (60,900 students), far more than the typical 0.5 percent to 1.5 percent annual enrollment declines in Illinois over the last 5 years.

Schools	No. of students enrolled	Chronic truancy rates
Black Hawk Elementary School	274	20.7%
Carl Sandburg Middle School	390	29.2%
Center Elementary School	280	32.2%
Dakota Elementary School	387	-
Dakota Junior Senior High School	384	7.6%
Empire Elementary School	337	43.7%
Freeport High School	1,026	35%
Freeport Middle School	533	40.8%
Jones-Farrar, an International Baccalaureate World School	317	13.1%
Lena-Winslow Elementary School	392	-
Lena-Winslow High School	244	-
Lena-Winslow Junior High School	163	-
Lincoln-Douglas Elementary School	270	27.6%
Orangeville Elementary School	135	-
Orangeville High School	103	-
Orangeville Junior High School	74	-
Pearl City Elementary School	216	-
Pearl City High School	138	9%
Pearl City Junior High School	62	-