Chambana Sun

Clara Peterson Elementary School had the highest enrollment among Ford County schools, welcoming 571 students during the 2021-22 school year, according to the Illinois State Board of Education report.

Out of all the students welcomed in the 2021-22 school year, 58% of them were boys, and 42% were girls.

Data also showed that most of the students were white, representing 81.4% of the student body at Clara Peterson Elementary School.

Among the six schools in Ford County, Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley Elementary School ranked second in enrollment with 478 students, while Paxton-Buckley-Loda High School welcomed 413 students to be ranked third in the 2021-22 school year.

Clara Peterson Elementary School is a part of Paxton-Buckley-Loda Community Unit School District 10, which generally encompasses schools within Ford County with its main office in Paxton.

In the previous school year, Clara Peterson Elementary School had the highest number of students among Ford County schools.

In the 2021-22 school year, Illinois had roughly 1.9 million students enrolled across approximately schools. There were more than 130,000 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 3% between the 2019–20 and 2020–21 school years (60,900 students), far more than the typical 0.5% to 1.5% annual enrollment declines in Illinois over the last 5 years.

School name	City	Total Enrolment
Clara Peterson Elementary School	Paxton	571
Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley Elementary School	Gibson City	478
Paxton-Buckley-Loda High School	Paxton	413
Paxton-Buckley-Loda Junior High School	Paxton	292
Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley High School	Gibson City	277
Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley Middle School	Gibson City	202