East Central Reporter

Flora Community Unit School District 35 had the highest enrollment among Clay County districts, welcoming 1,293 students during the 2021-22 school year, according to the Illinois State Board of Education report.

Of all the students welcomed in the 2021-22 school year, 50.3% of them were boys, and 49.7% were girls.

Data also showed that the majority of students were white, making up 93.6% of the Flora Community Unit School District 35's total enrollment.

Among the three districts in Clay County, North Clay Community Unit School District 25 ranked second in enrollment numbers with 572 students, while Clay City Community Unit School District 10 welcomed 297 students and ranked third in the 2021-22 school year.

Flora Community Unit School District 35 roughly covers schools within Clay County with its main office in Flora.

In the previous school year, Flora Community Unit School District 35 also had the highest number of students among Clay County districts.

In 2022, Illinois had 1,925,415 students enrolled in a total of almost 4,000 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 several years, influenced by demographic changes. Between the 2019–2020 and 2020–2021 school years, public and private K-12 enrollment fell by 3% (60,900 students), a significantly larger decline than the typical 0.5% to 1.5% annual decreases seen in the state over the last five years.

District	City (main office)	Total Enrollment
Flora Community Unit School District 35	Flora	1,293
North Clay Community Unit School District 25	Louisville	572
Clay City Community Unit School District 10	Clay City	297