Chambana Sun

Students in Champaign County districts had a truancy rate of 21.3% in the 2021-22 school year, according to the Illinois State Board of Education.

There were 24,501 students enrolled in Champaign County districts in the 2021-22 school year, of which 5,208 students were absent throughout the year.

The districts located in the county had a dropout rate 7.5%, which was 3.8% higher than the year before.

Across the county, Rantoul Township High School District 193 suffered the most truancy issues (40.5%) in the 2021-22 school year. Meanwhile, Tolono Community Unit School District 7 successfully recorded the lowest truancy rate in the region (1.9%).

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 Champaign 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
Rantoul Township High School District 193	801	40.5%
Rantoul City School District 137	1,686	34.6%
Urbana School District 116	4,208	32.9%
Champaign Community Unit School District 4	10,120	29.5%
Thomasboro Community Consolidated School District 130	136	17.8%
Heritage Community Unit School District 8	371	9.6%
Mahomet-Seymour Community Unit School District 3	3,325	4.3%
Fisher Community Unit School District 1	578	2.5%
Tolono Community Unit School District 7	1,526	1.9%