McLean County Times

Prairie Central Community Unit School District 8 welcomed 1,723 students in the 2021-22 school year, according to the Illinois State Board of Education report.

This is a 1.8% increase over the previous school year.

Prairie Central High School had the largest enrollment in the district with 514 students.

Prairie Central Community Unit School District 8 roughly covers schools within Livingston County and has a main office in Fairbury.

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 three percent between the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 school year (60,900 students), far more than the typical 0.5 percent to 1.5 percent annual enrollment declines in Illinois over the last 5 years.