There were 81 Black students enrolled in Pembroke Consolidated Community School District 259 in the 2024-25 school year, 12.9% fewer than the previous year, according to the Illinois State Board of Education.
Data showed that Pembroke Consolidated Community School District 259 welcomed 184 students during the 2024-25 school year. Among them, Black students comprised 44.0% of the student body to be the most represented ethnicity in the district.
Pembroke Consolidated Community School District 259 roughly covers schools within Kankakee County and has a main office in Hopkins Park.
Lorenzo R. Smith Elementary School is the only one school in the Pembroke Consolidated Community School District 259 that recorded enrollment of Black students in the 2024-25 school year, with a total of 81 students.
Nationwide, public K-12 education spending has approached roughly $857 billion, with average per-student spending near $17,000, funded primarily through state and local sources. Spending varies widely by state, and Illinois ranks above the national average, with roughly $22,000 spent per student when state, local, and federal funding are combined.
Illinois public school enrollment continues a long-term downward trend. According to statewide reporting and education data analyses, total enrollment fell to about 1.85 million students as of the 2023-24 school year, and major districts such as Chicago Public Schools saw further declines—for example, CPS reported a drop of more than 9,000 students between the 2024-25 and 2025-26 counts.
| Year | Total District Enrollment | Total of Black Students | Black students (%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 184 | 81 | 44% |
| 2023-24 | 189 | 93 | 49.2% |
| 2022-23 | 154 | 84 | 54.5% |
| 2021-22 | 175 | 105 | 60% |
| 2020-21 | 163 | 115 | 70.6% |
Information in this article was obtained from the Illinois Report Card. The source data can be found here.
