Kankakee Times

Students in Kankakee County districts had a truancy rate of 30.5% in the 2021-22 school year, according to the Illinois State Board of Education. This was an increase over the previous school year's rate of 16.2%.

There were 16,350 students enrolled in Kankakee County districts in the 2021-22 school year, of which 4,981 students were absent throughout the year.

The districts located in the county had a dropout rate 2.9%, which was 1.3% higher than the year before.

Across the county, Kankakee School District 111 suffered the most truancy issues (65%) in the 2021-22 school year. Meanwhile, St. George Community Consolidated School District 258 successfully recorded the lowest truancy rate in the region (3%).

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 Kankakee 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
Kankakee School District 111	4,932	65%
Pembroke Consolidated Community School District 259	175	56.6%
Bradley-Bourbonnais Consolidated High School District 307	1,883	50.7%
St. Anne Community High School District 302	180	23.3%
Bourbonnais School District 53	2,281	16.1%
Bradley School District 61	1,340	15.5%
Manteno Community Unit School District 5	1,839	15.1%
Momence Community Unit School District 1	936	15%
St. Anne Community Consolidated School District 256	286	7.2%
Grant Park Community Unit School District 6	432	5.2%
Herscher Community Unit School District 2	1,673	3.5%
St. George Community Consolidated School District 258	393	3%