West Central Reporter

Cass County schools welcomed 2,398 students in the 2022-23 school year, according to the Illinois State Board of Education.

This is an increase of 0.2% over the previous school year, when there were 2,393 students enrolled in the county.

Cass County had the 35th lowest enrollment numbers in the state.

Of all the students welcomed at the time, 52.3% identified as male, and 47.7% as female.

The most represented ethnicity among Cass County students was white, making up about 45.3% of all the students.

Within Cass County, Beardstown Junior/Senior High School had the highest enrollment in the school year, welcoming 813 students.

In 2022, Illinois had almost 2 million students enrolled in nearly 4,000 schools. There was roughly one teacher for every 15 students, slightly better than the national average of 1:16.

K-12 enrollment has been declining in Illinois for many years, reflecting the state's demographic changes. Combined public and private K-12 enrollment dropped 3% between the 2019–20 and 2020–21 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.

School	City	Enrollment
A-C Central Elementary School	Chandlerville	147
A-C Central High School	Ashland	107
A-C Central Middle School	Ashland	82
Beardstown Junior/Senior High School	Beardstown	813
Gard Elementary School	Beardstown	470
Gard Elementary School	Beardstown	470
Virginia Elementary School	Virginia	177
Virginia Junior and Senior High School	Virginia	132