Illinois Unified School District Boundaries for 2022

Unified School District boundaries for the state of Illinois, reflecting administrative units in effect for the 2021-2022 school year. The U.S. Census Bureau provides these boundaries, names, local education agency codes, grade ranges, and district levels obtained from State officials. This data serves as the basis for Title I funding allocations by the U.S. Department of Education.

Use Cases

• Analyze the geographic distribution of school district boundaries to assess service areas and potential overlaps.
• Join school district names and local education agency codes with demographic or funding data for policy analysis.
• Map unified school district polygons to visualize administrative coverage across Illinois for the 2021-2022 school year.
• Examine grade ranges associated with each district to understand the educational levels served.

Strengths

• Data originates from the authoritative U.S. Census Bureau Master Address File/TIGER Database (MTDB).
• Boundaries represent a specific, documented time period (in operation as of January 1, 2022).
• Shapefiles are topologically integrated, designed to have no overlaps or gaps within the national file.

Limitations

• Contains only unified school districts; separate files are needed for elementary and secondary districts.
• Boundaries are for a single state (Illinois), limiting national or regional analysis without combining other files.
• The data reflects administrative boundaries, not necessarily attendance zones or enrollment data.

Provenance

Source

U.S. Census Bureau, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Extracted from the Master Address File / Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing (MAF/TIGER) Database; boundaries and attributes obtained from State officials.

Time Range

2021-2022 school year (boundaries in effect as of January 1, 2022).

Freshness

Data reflects the 2021-2022 school year; metadata was last updated in January 2024.

Geography

State of Illinois, USA.