VISUALIZED AMERICAN
PUBLIC SCHOOLS
STATE-BY-STATE DATA
VISUALIZED AMERICAN PUBLIC SCHOOLS · IL

Illinois Public Schools

The canvas comes first: every public school district in Illinois, drawn from the federal boundary files. The data layers — enrollment change, funding, teachers, achievement — are built on top of this map, Missouri-style, in phases.

THE DISTRICT MAP

School district boundaries

Hover any district for its name. Boundaries are the 2024–25 school-year files from NCES EDGE / U.S. Census TIGER.

MAP IN PREPARATION
The Illinois district boundary file hasn’t been generated yet.
Run scripts/make_boundaries.sh to rebuild boundaries/illinois.geojson, then redeploy.
Source: NCES EDGE Composite School District Boundaries, 2024–25 (via U.S. Census TIGER/Line). Unified and elementary districts shown; secondary districts omitted.

757 districts are drawn on this map — 386 unified and 371 elementary.

How districts are drawn here. Illinois has separate elementary and secondary school districts whose territories overlap. To keep the map readable, it shows unified districts plus elementary districts — together they tile the state exactly, with no gaps and no overlaps. The 105 secondary districts are not drawn, because they sit on top of the elementary districts rather than beside them. Data joined to this map follows the same rule.
COMING NEXT

The Missouri playbook, applied to Illinois

Each theme below becomes a page of interactive maps as Illinois is built out. The national data backbone (NCES, Census F-33, SEDA, SAIPE) covers every theme; state-specific sources add depth.

ENROLLMENT & DEMOGRAPHICS
Who the schools serve
District-by-district enrollment change, student diversity, urban-to-rural patterns.
In development
FUNDING & FINANCE
What communities can raise
Per-pupil spending, local tax base, and the state's own funding formula pressure points.
In development
TEACHERS & ACHIEVEMENT
Classrooms and outcomes
Teacher workforce and pay, achievement vs. poverty, and pandemic recovery from SEDA.
In development
IL
Illinois State Board of Education
Illinois’s state education agency — the primary source for state-specific district data as this page is built out.