Chambana Sun

Paxton-Buckley-Loda Community Unit School District 10 had the highest enrollment among Ford County districts, welcoming 1,276 students during the 2021-22 school year, according to the Illinois State Board of Education report.

Of all the students welcomed in the 2021-22 school year, 53.8% of them were boys, and 46.2% were girls.

Data also showed that the majority of students were white, making up 83.9% of the Paxton-Buckley-Loda Community Unit School District 10's total enrollment.

Among the two districts in Ford County, Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley Community Unit School District 5 ranked second in enrollment numbers with 957 students.

Paxton-Buckley-Loda Community Unit School District 10 roughly covers schools within Ford County with its main office in Paxton.

In the previous school year, Paxton-Buckley-Loda Community Unit School District 10 also had the highest number of students among Ford County districts.

In 2022, Illinois had 1,925,415 students enrolled in a total of almost 4,000 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 several years, influenced by demographic changes. Between the 2019–2020 and 2020–2021 school years, public and private K-12 enrollment fell by 3% (60,900 students), a significantly larger decline than the typical 0.5% to 1.5% annual decreases seen in the state over the last five years.

District	City (main office)	Total Enrollment
Paxton-Buckley-Loda Community Unit School District 10	Paxton	1,276
Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley Community Unit School District 5	Gibson City	957