Galesburg Reporter

Students in Knox County districts had a truancy rate of 14.5% 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 35.1%.

There were 6,677 students enrolled in Knox County districts in the 2021-22 school year, of which 971 students were absent throughout the year.

The districts located in the county had a dropout rate 6%, which was -0.2% lower than the year before.

Across the county, Galesburg Community Unit School District 205 suffered the most truancy issues (23.6%) in the 2021-22 school year. Meanwhile, ROWVA Community Unit School District 208 successfully recorded the lowest truancy rate in the region (4.4%).

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 Knox 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
Galesburg Community Unit School District 205	3,901	23.6%
Abingdon-Avon Community Unit School District 276	885	11.7%
Williamsfield Community Unit School District 210	284	4.5%
ROWVA Community Unit School District 208	623	4.4%