DeKalb Times

Students in DeKalb County districts had a truancy rate of 15.2% 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 23.5%.

There were 16,151 students enrolled in DeKalb County districts in the 2021-22 school year, of which 2,451 students were absent throughout the year.

The districts located in the county had a dropout rate 3%, which was 0.4% higher than the year before.

Across the county, DeKalb Community Unit School District 428 suffered the most truancy issues (28.6%) in the 2021-22 school year. Meanwhile, Somonauk Community Unit School District 432 successfully recorded the lowest truancy rate in the region (2%).

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 DeKalb 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
DeKalb Community Unit School District 428	6,703	28.6%
Sandwich Community Unit School District 430	1,826	10.8%
Hinckley-Big Rock Community Unit School District 429	700	9.3%
Genoa-Kingston Community Unit School District 424	1,491	9%
Hiawatha Community Unit School District 426	416	6.8%
Indian Creek School District 425	727	5.7%
Sycamore Community Unit School District 427	3,545	4.8%
Somonauk Community Unit School District 432	743	2%