South Cook News

Ottawa Elementary School District 141 had the highest enrollment among LaSalle County districts, welcoming 1,748 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, 50.6% of them were girls, and 49.4% were boys.

Data also showed that the majority of students were white, making up 72.8% of the Ottawa Elementary School District 141's total enrollment.

Among the 26 districts in LaSalle County, Streator Elementary School District 44 ranked second in enrollment numbers with 1,477 students, while Ottawa Township High School District 140 welcomed 1,260 students and ranked third in the 2021-22 school year.

Ottawa Elementary School District 141 roughly covers schools within LaSalle County with its main office in Ottawa.

In the previous school year, Ottawa Elementary School District 141 also had the highest number of students among LaSalle 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
Ottawa Elementary School District 141	Ottawa	1,748
Streator Elementary School District 44	Streator	1,477
Ottawa Township High School District 140	Ottawa	1,260
LaSalle-Peru Township High School District 120	LaSalle	1,213
Mendota Community Consolidated School District 289	Mendota	1,013
Peru Elementary School District 124	Peru	937
La Salle Elementary School District 122	LaSalle	885
Streator Township High School District 40	Streator	816
Community Unit School District 2	Serena	638
Marseilles Elementary School District 150	Marseilles	517
Mendota Township High School District 280	Mendota	503
Seneca Community Consolidated School District 170	Seneca	466
Oglesby Elementary School District 125	Oglesby	449
Wallace Community Consolidated School District 195	Ottawa	418
Seneca Township High School District 160	Seneca	383
Earlville Community Unit School District 9	Earlville	375
Leland Community Unit School District 1	Leland	239
Waltham Community Consolidated School District 185	Utica	205
Grand Ridge Community Consolidated School District 95	Grand Ridge	186
Miller Township Community Consolidated School District 210	Marseilles	168
Dimmick Community Consolidated School District 175	LaSalle	150
Tonica Community Consolidated School District 79	Tonica	131
Allen-Otter Creek Community Consolidated School District 65	Ransom	92
Rutland Community Consolidated School District 230	Ottawa	72
Deer Park Community Consolidated School District 82	Ottawa	63
Lostant Community Unit School District 425	Lostant	63