2021-22 School Year Attendance: Livingston County districts suffered a truancy rate of 9%

Rooks Creek Community Consolidated School District 425 Principal Mr. Todd Bean (2023) | https://www.linkedin.com/in/todd-bean-a9aa1961/

By McLean County Times

Feb 24, 2024

Students in Livingston County districts had a truancy rate of 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 16.2%.

There were 5,791 students enrolled in Livingston County districts in the 2021-22 school year, of which 521 students were absent throughout the year.

The districts located in the county had a dropout rate 3.8%, which was 1.5% higher than the year before.

Across the county, Rooks Creek Community Consolidated School District 425 suffered the most truancy issues (40.9%) in the 2021-22 school year. Meanwhile, Dwight Common School District 232 successfully recorded the lowest truancy rate in the region (5.9%).

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 Livingston 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.

Truancy vs Attendance Rates in Livingston County Over 2 Years

Livingston County Districts Chronic Truancy Rates in 2021-22 School Year

District	No. of students enrolled	Chronic truancy rates
Rooks Creek Community Consolidated School District 425	49	40.9%
Pontiac Township High School District 90	678	16.8%
Prairie Central Community Unit School District 8	1,723	12.3%
Dwight Township High School District 230	220	9.4%
Pontiac Community Consolidated School District 429	1,105	8.2%
Tri-Point Community Unit School District 6-J	363	8%
Woodland Community Unit School District 5	442	7.3%
Flanagan-Cornell District 74	314	6%
Dwight Common School District 232	511	5.9%