Carbondale Reporter

Students in Jackson County schools were truant 17.6% of the time in the 2021-22 school year, the Illinois State Board of Education reported. The truancy rate was lower than the previous school year.

There were 6,566 students enrolled in Jackson County in the 2021-22 school year, meaning 1,158 students were absent throughout the year.

The dropout rate in the county was 4.9%, the same as 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
Carbondale Community High School	930	33.8%
Carbondale Middle School	452	16.6%
Carruthers Elementary School	387	12.5%
DeSoto Elementary School	177	16.7%
Elverado High School	117	15.6%
Elverado Intermediate School	73	-
Elverado Junior High School	76	13.5%
Elverado Primary School	116	-
General John A. Logan Attendence Centre	424	18.1%
Giant City Elementary School	241	-
Lewis School	295	28.9%
McElvain School	91	-
Murphysboro High School	579	23.3%
Murphysboro Middle School	425	15.8%
Parrish Elementary School	466	29.5%
Thomas Elementary School	300	30.2%
Trico Elementary School	407	-
Trico Junior High School	177	10.3%
Trico Senior High School	216	5.6%
Unity Point Elementary School	617	13.3%