McLean County Times

Students in McLean County districts had a truancy rate of 15.1% 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 20.3%.

There were 22,844 students enrolled in McLean County districts in the 2021-22 school year, of which 3,458 students were absent throughout the year.

The districts located in the county had a dropout rate 3.1%, which was 0.8% higher than the year before.

Across the county, Bloomington School District 87 suffered the most truancy issues (28.8%) in the 2021-22 school year. Meanwhile, Heyworth Community Unit School District 4 successfully recorded the lowest truancy rate in the region (1.6%).

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 McLean 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
Bloomington School District 87	4,982	28.8%
McLean County Unit School District 5	12,393	16.9%
Olympia Community Unit School District 16	1,706	6.9%
Lexington Community Unit School District 7	489	4.5%
LeRoy Community Unit School District 2	781	2.4%
Tri-Valley Community Unit School District 3	1,079	1.9%
Heyworth Community Unit School District 4	883	1.6%