SE Illinois News

Students in Wayne County districts had a truancy rate of 7.9% in the 2021-22 school year, according to the Illinois State Board of Education. This was a decrease from the previous school year's rate of 9.6%.

There were 2,356 students enrolled in Wayne County districts in the 2021-22 school year, of which 186 students were absent throughout the year.

The districts located in the county had a dropout rate 7.4%, which was 0.9% higher than the year before.

Across the county, Geff Community Consolidated School District 14 suffered the most truancy issues (24.1%) in the 2021-22 school year. Meanwhile, North Wayne Community Unit School District 200 successfully recorded the lowest truancy rate in the region (4.1%).

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 Wayne 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
Geff Community Consolidated School District 14	78	24.1%
Fairfield Community High School District 225	423	15.1%
New Hope Community Consolidated School District 6	189	14.9%
Fairfield Public School District 112	614	6.3%
Wayne City Community Unit School District 100	496	6%
North Wayne Community Unit School District 200	378	4.1%