Rock Island Today

Students in Rock Island County districts had a truancy rate of 25% 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 37.5%.

There were 22,108 students enrolled in Rock Island County districts in the 2021-22 school year, of which 5,532 students were absent throughout the year.

The districts located in the county had a dropout rate 4.8%, which was 1.4% higher than the year before.

Across the county, Rock Island School District 41 suffered the most truancy issues (40.5%) in the 2021-22 school year. Meanwhile, Riverdale Community Unit School District 100 successfully recorded the lowest truancy rate in the region (2.3%).

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 Rock Island 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
Rock Island School District 41	6,096	40.5%
United Township High School District 30	1,743	29.8%
Moline-Coal Valley School District 40	7,123	28.3%
East Moline School District 37	2,527	19.3%
Silvis School District 34	637	18.8%
Carbon Cliff-Barstow School District 36	283	17.7%
Sherrard Community Unit School District 200	1,351	8.5%
Rockridge Community Unit School District 300	1,036	8%
Riverdale Community Unit School District 100	1,087	2.3%