Cowden-Herrick Community Unit School District 3A welcomed 338 students in the 2024-25 school year, according to the Illinois State Board of Education.
This represents a 5% increase over the previous school year.
Cowden-Herrick Grade School had the largest enrollment in the district with 173 students.
Cowden-Herrick Community Unit School District 3A roughly covers schools within Shelby County and has a main office in Cowden.
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.
| School | Enrollment | Change from Previous Year (%) |
|---|---|---|
| Cowden-Herrick Junior/Senior High School | 165 | 1.2% |
| Cowden-Herrick Grade School | 173 | 8.8% |
Information in this article was obtained from the Illinois State Board of Education. The source data can be found here.


