Chambana Sun

Ford County schools welcomed 2,465 students in the 2023-24 school year, according to the Illinois State Board of Education.

This is a decrease of 1.6% from the previous school year, when there were 2,504 students enrolled in the county.

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

Of all the students welcomed at the time, 53.2% identified as male, and 46.8% as female.

Most of the students enrolled in the county were white, representing 83.9% of its student body.

Within Ford County, Clara Peterson Elementary School had the highest enrollment in the school year, welcoming 585 students.

As of the 2023-24 school year, Illinois public schools enrolled approximately 1.85 million students across 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. Between the 2019–20 and 2022–23 school years, Illinois public school enrollment declined from approximately 1.98 million to 1.85 million students, a decrease of about 127,000 students or 6.4%. This decline is significantly higher than the typical annual decreases of 0.5% to 1.5% observed in the preceding years, reflecting broader demographic shifts within the state.

School	City	Enrollment
Clara Peterson Elementary School	Paxton	585
Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley Elementary School	Gibson City	498
Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley High School	Gibson City	266
Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley Middle School	Gibson City	212
Paxton-Buckley-Loda High School	Paxton	364
Paxton-Buckley-Loda Junior High School	Paxton	278
Tri Point Elementary School	Kempton	120
Tri-Point Junior High/Elementary	Piper City	142