Sangamon Sun

Students in Sangamon County districts had a truancy rate of 29.8% 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 31.7%.

There were 26,878 students enrolled in Sangamon County districts in the 2021-22 school year, of which 8,008 students were absent throughout the year.

The districts located in the county had a dropout rate 5.1%, which was 0.2% higher than the year before.

Across the county, Springfield School District 186 suffered the most truancy issues (59.6%) in the 2021-22 school year. Meanwhile, Williamsville Community Unit School District 15 successfully recorded the lowest truancy rate in the region (1.5%).

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 Sangamon 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
Springfield School District 186	13,015	59.6%
Riverton Community Unit School District 14	1,236	13%
Tri-City Community Unit School District 1	590	11.1%
Auburn Community Unit School District 10	1,160	10.8%
Ball-Chatham Community Unit School District 5	4,636	8.2%
Pawnee Community Unit School District 11	543	6.8%
Rochester Community Unit School District 3A	2,102	3.2%
Community Unit School District 16	848	2.1%
Pleasant Plains Community Unit School District 8	1,245	1.5%
Williamsville Community Unit School District 15	1,503	1.5%