Putnam County schools welcomed 790 students in 2022-23 school year

Putnam County schools welcomed 790 students in the 2022-23 school year, according to the Illinois State Board of Education.

This is an increase of 1.4% over the previous school year, when there were 779 students enrolled in the county.

Putnam County had the 10th lowest enrollment numbers in the state.

Of all the students welcomed at the time, 52.5% identified as male, and 47.5% as female.

Most of the students enrolled in the county were white, representing 83.2% of its student body.

Within Putnam County, Putnam County High School had the highest enrollment in the school year, welcoming 246 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.