Rockford Sun

Students in Boone County districts had a truancy rate of 16.8% 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 21.3%.

There were 8,975 students enrolled in Boone County districts in the 2021-22 school year, of which 1,512 students were absent throughout the year.

The districts located in the county had a dropout rate 5.7%, which was 2.5% higher than the year before.

Across the county, Belvidere Consolidated Unit School District 100 suffered the most truancy issues (20.1%) in the 2021-22 school year. Meanwhile, North Boone Community Unit School District 200 successfully recorded the lowest truancy rate in the region (6.7%).

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 Boone 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
Belvidere Consolidated Unit School District 100	7,457	20.1%
North Boone Community Unit School District 200	1,518	6.7%