East Central Reporter

Students in Clay County schools were truant 9.6% of the time in the 2021-22 school year, the Illinois State Board of Education reported. The truancy rate was higher than the previous school year.

There were 2,162 students enrolled in Clay County in the 2021-22 school year, meaning 207 students were absent throughout the year.

The dropout rate in the county was 7.7%, 3.8% higher than the year before.

Statewide, Hardin County schools suffered the most truancy issues (38.4%) in the 2021-22 school year. Meanwhile, Monroe County schools successfully recorded the lowest truancy rate in the region (3.1%).

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.

In 2022, Illinois had more than 1.9 million students enrolled in nearly 4,000 schools across 852 school districts. There were more than 350,000 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 years (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.

Schools	No. of students enrolled	Chronic truancy rates
Clay City Elementary School	163	-
Clay City High School	74	-
Clay City Junior High School	60	-
Flora Elementary School	650	2.7%
Flora High School	353	15%
Floyd Henson Junior High School	290	23%
North Clay Community High School	190	12.4%
North Clay Elementary/Junior High School	382	7.8%