City and district rankings from federal incident data · 2021-22 collection
Nine hundred sixty-one school districts operate in Illinois, spread across 4,409 schools. That structure shapes most of what you will find on this page. Before we rank a district against districts in other states, it needs several schools whose incident records we can actually vouch for. Sixty-seven Illinois districts meet that condition. The rest are not hidden or penalized — there simply is not enough verifiable reporting in them to compare fairly.
Here is what a parent can take from this page. For each school, we compare what it reported to the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection against schools across the country of about the same size teaching the same grade levels. A school clearing that bar earns an A or a B, and only then do we publish a safety score. In Illinois, 2,144 schools have one. Schools graded C reported close to nothing but are small enough that a true zero happens often; that is not evidence of safety, but it is not hard to believe either. Schools graded D or E are the size where similar schools normally report several incidents, and these reported almost none. Illinois has 494 such schools.
That works out to 11.2% of schools in the state, against 11.3% nationally. Illinois sits where the country sits. What that comparison does not tell you is whether children here are safer or less safe than children anywhere else. We do not adjust for state, because state-to-state differences in this data are differences in how districts fill out federal forms. A doubtful grade means records we cannot verify. It does not mean violence.
Quincy SD 172 ranks above every other ranked district in the country, with five of the nine schools in its scored set complete enough to grade. Crystal Lake CCSD 47 (nine of thirteen) and Waukegan CUSD 60 (ten of twenty-two) both rank above 98% of ranked US districts, as does Central CUSD 301, where all seven of its scored schools graded. West Chicago ESD 33, with five of ten, ranks above 97%.
Percentile is against all ranked U.S. cities (higher = safer). Only cities with ≥5 trustworthy-data schools are ranked. Home value is Zillow's ZHVI.
| # | CITY | SAFETY PCTL | SCHOOLS | HOME VALUE |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Waukegan | 98 | 11 of 23 | $247,565 |
| 2 | West Chicago | 97 | 5 of 12 | $394,635 |
| 3 | Normal | 96 | 14 of 18 | $269,011 |
| 4 | Evanston | 95 | 16 of 19 | $496,114 |
| 5 | Chatham | 95 | 6 of 6 | $308,707 |
| 6 | Berwyn | 95 | 7 of 13 | $325,587 |
| 7 | Rock Island | 90 | 9 of 13 | $128,847 |
| 8 | Skokie | 90 | 6 of 15 | $435,880 |
| 9 | Rochelle | 86 | 5 of 6 | $196,703 |
| 10 | New Lenox | 86 | 12 of 14 | $457,264 |
| 11 | Paris | 85 | 5 of 10 | $108,994 |
| 12 | Bloomington | 84 | 15 of 18 | $271,396 |
| 13 | Batavia | 82 | 7 of 8 | $473,922 |
| 14 | Riverdale | 79 | 5 of 5 | $122,762 |
| 15 | Mount Prospect | 79 | 6 of 8 | $458,867 |
| 16 | Highland Park | 79 | 7 of 12 | $809,080 |
| 17 | Moline | 78 | 10 of 14 | $153,462 |
| 18 | Hanover Park | 77 | 6 of 10 | $339,184 |
| 19 | Gurnee | 76 | 5 of 6 | $383,967 |
| 20 | Quincy | 75 | 6 of 11 | $182,838 |
| 21 | Metropolis | 75 | 5 of 6 | $118,025 |
| 22 | Villa Park | 73 | 5 of 6 | $369,933 |
| 23 | Edwardsville | 73 | 7 of 10 | $336,493 |
| 24 | Kankakee | 71 | 10 of 13 | $156,135 |
| 25 | Flossmoor | 70 | 5 of 5 | $345,343 |
| 26 | Charleston | 70 | 5 of 6 | $164,471 |
| 27 | Buffalo Grove | 61 | 5 of 12 | $452,277 |
| 28 | Downers Grove | 60 | 5 of 17 | $514,191 |
| 29 | Blue Island | 59 | 7 of 8 | $207,763 |
| 30 | Danville | 58 | 13 of 17 | $78,859 |
| 31 | Wheaton | 58 | 6 of 17 | $524,542 |
| 32 | Champaign | 57 | 11 of 19 | $241,516 |
| 33 | Belleville | 53 | 16 of 25 | $162,763 |
| 34 | Romeoville | 53 | 7 of 8 | $323,928 |
| 35 | Peoria | 52 | 21 of 44 | $137,410 |
| 36 | Antioch | 51 | 6 of 7 | $360,340 |
| 37 | Cahokia | 51 | 6 of 9 | — |
| 38 | Dolton | 49 | 7 of 10 | $162,069 |
| 39 | Chicago Heights | 49 | 8 of 19 | $178,005 |
| 40 | Glenview | 48 | 5 of 14 | $702,098 |
| 41 | Yorkville | 47 | 8 of 9 | $409,559 |
| 42 | Aurora | 47 | 30 of 49 | $327,932 |
| 43 | East Peoria | 46 | 7 of 11 | $186,699 |
| 44 | East Saint Louis | 46 | 6 of 8 | $38,024 |
| 45 | Marion | 45 | 7 of 9 | $185,960 |
| 46 | Machesney Park | 44 | 5 of 6 | $211,243 |
| 47 | Bartlett | 42 | 8 of 10 | $448,185 |
| 48 | Sycamore | 40 | 5 of 7 | $323,610 |
| 49 | Orland Park | 40 | 7 of 13 | $414,682 |
| 50 | Rantoul | 40 | 5 of 6 | $144,868 |
| # | DISTRICT | SAFETY PCTL | SCHOOLS |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Quincy SD 172 | 100 | 5 of 9 |
| 2 | Crystal Lake CCSD 47 | 98 | 9 of 13 |
| 3 | Waukegan CUSD 60 | 98 | 10 of 22 |
| 4 | Central CUSD 301 | 98 | 7 of 7 |
| 5 | West Chicago ESD 33 | 97 | 5 of 10 |
| 6 | Evanston CCSD 65 | 95 | 15 of 17 |
| 7 | McLean County USD 5 | 94 | 22 of 26 |
| 8 | Ball Chatham CUSD 5 | 93 | 6 of 6 |
| 9 | Aurora West USD 129 | 91 | 15 of 17 |
| 10 | North Shore SD 112 | 88 | 6 of 10 |
| 11 | Rock Island SD 41 | 86 | 10 of 14 |
| 12 | New Lenox SD 122 | 84 | 10 of 12 |
| 13 | Ccsd 89 | 83 | 5 of 5 |
| 14 | Peoria SD 150 | 83 | 15 of 30 |
| 15 | Batavia USD 101 | 78 | 7 of 8 |
| 16 | East Peoria SD 86 | 75 | 5 of 7 |
| 17 | Bloomington SD 87 | 75 | 8 of 9 |
| 18 | Joliet PSD 86 | 75 | 17 of 21 |
| 19 | Edwardsville CUSD 7 | 74 | 9 of 15 |
| 20 | Belleville SD 118 | 74 | 7 of 11 |
| 21 | Chicago Heights SD 170 | 73 | 5 of 11 |
| 22 | Moline-Coal Valley CUSD 40 | 73 | 10 of 15 |
| 23 | Oak Lawn-Hometown SD 123 | 71 | 6 of 6 |
| 24 | Comm Cons SD 59 | 70 | 9 of 15 |
| 25 | Dolton SD 148 | 68 | 9 of 10 |