Chambana Sun

Ford County schools welcomed 2,504 students in the 2022-23 school year, according to the Illinois State Board of Education.

This is an increase of 0.7% over the previous school year, when there were 2,486 students enrolled in the county.

Ford County had the 40th lowest enrollment numbers in the state.

Of all the students welcomed at the time, 53.8% identified as male, and 46.2% as female.

Most of the students enrolled in the county were white, representing 84.5% of its student body.

Within Ford County, Clara Peterson Elementary School had the highest enrollment in the school year, welcoming 624 students.

In 2022, Illinois had almost 2 million students enrolled in nearly 4,000 schools. There was roughly one teacher for every 15 students, slightly better than the national average of 1:16.

K-12 enrollment has been declining in Illinois for many years, reflecting the state's 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 five years.

School	City	Enrollment
Clara Peterson Elementary School	Paxton	624
Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley Elementary School	Gibson City	468
Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley High School	Gibson City	287
Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley Middle School	Gibson City	206
Paxton-Buckley-Loda High School	Paxton	397
Paxton-Buckley-Loda Junior High School	Paxton	266
Tri Point Elementary School	Kempton	113
Tri-Point Junior High/Elementary	Piper City	143