SE Illinois News

The only school district in Edwards County suffered a drop in enrollment numbers in the 2021-22 school year, according to the Illinois State Board of Education report.

There were 793 students in the halls of Edwards County Community Unit School District 1 schools, 1.4% lower than the year before.

The enrollment numbers in Edwards County amplified the state's declining trend, showing a sharper decrease in student numbers than the state average.

Of all the students welcomed in the 2021-22 school year, 51.3% of them were girls, and 48.7% were boys.

Data also showed that the majority of students were white, making up 95.6% of the Edwards County Community Unit School District 1's total enrollment.

Edwards County Community Unit School District 1 has a main office in Albion and is the only school district within Edwards County.

In 2022, Illinois had 1,925,415 students enrolled in a total of almost 4,000 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 several years, influenced by demographic changes. Between the 2019–2020 and 2020–2021 school years, public and private K-12 enrollment fell by 3% (60,900 students), a significantly larger decline than the typical 0.5% to 1.5% annual decreases seen in the state over the last five years.

School	Total Enrollment in 2021-22	Total Enrollment in 2020-21	Total % Change
Albion Grade School	430	408	5.4%
Edwards County High School	220	257	-14.4%
West Salem Grade School	143	139	2.9%