Every figure on PlainSchools is rendered directly from the source NCES, CRDC and F-33 federal
records, no number is typed in by an editor. District totals are aggregated directly from the schools reporting under this district in the source records. See our
editorial standards & corrections policy, the
methodology behind these numbers, or
report a data error. Data current as of June 2026.
Fairbury, Illinois - 6 schools
An equity score of 40/100 ranks Prairie Central Cusd 8 #342 of 763 districts in Illinois (state average 38). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $15,141 per pupil, Prairie Central Cusd 8 ranks #492 of 848 Illinois districts by per-pupil spending (Illinois districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
1,725
Total Enrollment
6
Schools
$15,141
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary, Combined
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Prairie Central Cusd 8 operates 6 public schools serving 1,725 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Illinois. The school portfolio breaks down into 2 elementary, 2 combined, 1 high, 1 middle schools, a small enough portfolio that most families will interact with nearly every campus in the district at some point. These enrollment and school figures come from the NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 release, and the district is based in Livingston County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $15,141 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the lower half of 848 Illinois districts by per-pupil spending. See how Illinois compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 55.1% local, 37.6% state, and 7.3% federal, a local-revenue-heavy mix that leaves the district more exposed to property-tax swings and local ballot measures than state-funded peers. The district's equity score is 40/100, ranked #342 of 763 in Illinois against a state average of 38, in line with the typical spread seen across the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
Academic infrastructure includes 1 of 6 schools offering Advanced Placement (4 AP courses district-wide), a 243.5:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 30.1% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 83.9% White, 10.3% Hispanic or Latino, 0.8% African American across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Prairie Central Primary East, with a diversity index of 34.1/100.
Its largest campus is Prairie Central High School, enrolling 487 students (28% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Prairie Central Primary East, at 148 students, a 3x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Prairie Central High School accounts for 28.2% of all Prairie Central Cusd 8 student enrollment
That dominant concentration means Prairie Central Cusd 8-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the dominant entity. Grade band: high. A single dominant campus often anchors a district's program offerings and staffing patterns; the share helps explain why district-wide averages may not reflect the typical neighbourhood-school experience. When one entity dominates a region's footprint, its programmatic and budget decisions effectively set policy for a majority of the affected population.
Prairie Central Cusd 8 school enrollment varies 3.3× across entities
Prairie Central Cusd 8 school enrollment ranges from 148 students (lowest) to 487 students (highest), a spread of 339 students. That relatively narrow ratio reflects an unusually homogeneous campus portfolio, most districts have a wider mix of school sizes. Per-school staffing ratios, programme availability, and capital-renovation cycles often diverge inside the same district based on enrollment shape.
Prairie Central Cusd 8 student-counselor ratio is 244:1 — low (typically associated with meeting or exceeding the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) recommended 250:1 benchmark, which correlates with stronger college and career counseling capacity)
student-counselor ratio is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: the ratio counts FTE counselors against total enrollment, districts that contract intervention or social-emotional staff outside the counselor classification may be under-counted Lower values often correlate with smaller scale and population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se.
Prairie Central Cusd 8 chronic absenteeism rate is 30.1% — high (typically associated with higher-than-average disruption; recent CRDC data showed elevated rates persisting after pandemic-era schooling changes)
chronic absenteeism rate is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: a student is chronically absent if they miss ≥10% of enrolled days for any reason, illness, family obligations, or disengagement Higher values may reflect larger urban scale or recent resource constraints that have widened the gap.