Chambana Sun

Students in Vermilion County districts had a truancy rate of 24.6% in the 2021-22 school year, according to the Illinois State Board of Education. This was an increase over the previous school year's rate of 24.3%.

There were 11,178 students enrolled in Vermilion County districts in the 2021-22 school year, of which 2,745 students were absent throughout the year.

The districts located in the county had a dropout rate 6.4%, which was 1.2% higher than the year before.

Across the county, Danville Community Consolidated School District 118 suffered the most truancy issues (47.7%) in the 2021-22 school year. Meanwhile, Salt Fork Community Unit School District 512 successfully recorded the lowest truancy rate in the region (3.9%).

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 Vermilion 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
Danville Community Consolidated School District 118	4,765	47.7%
Georgetown-Ridge Farm Consolidated Unit School District 4	856	21%
Hoopeston Area Community Unit School District 11	1,096	18.2%
Armstrong Township High School District 225	135	16.9%
Oakwood Community Unit School District 76	873	8.1%
Westville Community Unit School District 2	1,176	7.4%
Bismarck-Henning Rossville-Alvin Cooperative High School	357	7.3%
Rossville-Alvin Community Unit School District 7	261	4.3%
Salt Fork Community Unit School District 512	857	3.9%