West Central Reporter

Macomb Community Unit School District 185 had the highest enrollment among McDonough County districts, welcoming 1,924 students during the 2021-22 school year, according to the Illinois State Board of Education report.

Of all the students welcomed in the 2021-22 school year, 50.4% of them were girls, and 49.6% were boys.

Data also showed that the majority of students were white, making up 72.7% of the Macomb Community Unit School District 185's total enrollment.

Among the three districts in McDonough County, Bushnell Prairie City Community Unit School District 170 ranked second in enrollment numbers with 620 students, while West Prairie Community Unit School District 103 welcomed 580 students and ranked third in the 2021-22 school year.

Macomb Community Unit School District 185 roughly covers schools within McDonough County with its main office in Macomb.

In the previous school year, Macomb Community Unit School District 185 also had the highest number of students among McDonough County districts.

In 2022, Illinois had 1,925,415 students enrolled in a total of almost 4,000 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 several years, influenced by demographic changes. Between the 2019–2020 and 2020–2021 school years, public and private K-12 enrollment fell by 3% (60,900 students), a significantly larger decline than the typical 0.5% to 1.5% annual decreases seen in the state over the last five years.

District	City (main office)	Total Enrollment
Macomb Community Unit School District 185	Macomb	1,924
Bushnell Prairie City Community Unit School District 170	Bushnell	620
West Prairie Community Unit School District 103	Colchester	580