McHenry Times

Students in Kane County districts had a truancy rate of 19.2% in the 2021-22 school year, according to the Illinois State Board of Education. This was an increase over the previous school year's rate of 18.8%.

There were 110,118 students enrolled in Kane County districts in the 2021-22 school year, of which 21,143 students were absent throughout the year.

The districts located in the county had a dropout rate 2%, which was -0.1% lower than the year before.

Across the county, School District U-46 suffered the most truancy issues (32.1%) in the 2021-22 school year. Meanwhile, Geneva Community Unit School District 304 successfully recorded the lowest truancy rate in the region (0.6%).

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 Kane 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
School District U-46	35,377	32.1%
Aurora West Unit School District 129	10,925	26%
Community Unit School District 300	19,951	24.5%
Aurora East Unit School District 131	12,674	16.1%
Central Community Unit School District 301	4,638	6.3%
Batavia Unit School District 101	5,265	5.5%
St. Charles Community Unit School District 303	11,782	4.9%
Kaneland Community Unit School District 302	4,053	2.5%
Geneva Community Unit School District 304	5,092	0.6%