North Egypt News

Students in Franklin County districts had a truancy rate of 14.2% 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 21.2%.

There were 5,570 students enrolled in Franklin County districts in the 2021-22 school year, of which 793 students were absent throughout the year.

The districts located in the county had a dropout rate 8.2%, which was 3.2% higher than the year before.

Across the county, Zeigler-Royalton Community Unit School District 188 suffered the most truancy issues (25.7%) in the 2021-22 school year. Meanwhile, Thompsonville Community Unit School District 174 successfully recorded the lowest truancy rate in the region (5.2%).

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 Franklin 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
Zeigler-Royalton Community Unit School District 188	507	25.7%
Frankfort Community Unit School District 168	1,493	21.3%
Benton Consolidated High School District 103	571	16.5%
Benton Community Consolidated School District 47	1,084	16.1%
Christopher Community Unit School District 99	695	10.6%
Sesser-Valier Community Unit School District 196	596	5.6%
Thompsonville Community Unit School District 174	313	5.2%