KANKAKEE – State Senator Patrick Joyce announced that 18 school districts across the 40th District will receive over $8 million in evidence-based funding, in addition to the base funding that the state provides.
“I am dedicated to ensuring schools across my district get their fair share of state funds,” said Joyce (D-Essex). “From Park Forest to Bourbonnais and South Willy, evidence-based funding brings support to schools that need it most.”
The funding comes from the 2017 Illinois Senate Democrat-backed evidence-based funding formula — an overhaul of the way the state funds K-12 education. The law made school funding more equitable by calculating the needs of individual school districts and basing state revenue on those needs. The formula takes into account a district’s total enrollment, poverty rate and number of special education or English language learners, among other factors.
School districts across the 40th District set to receive funding through the formula include:
- South Cook Intermediate Service Center 4
- Flossmoor School District 161
- Park Forest School District 163
- Chicago Heights School District 170
- Steger School District 194
- Bloom Township High School District 206
- South Wilmington School District 74
- Braceville School District 75
- Iroquois-Kankakee Regional Office of Education
- Herscher Community Unit School District 2
- Bourbonnais School District 53
- Bradley School District 61
- Kankakee School District 111
- Bradley Bourbonnais Community High School District 307
- Manhattan School District 114
- Crete Monee Community Unit School District 201U
- Wilmington Community Unit School District 209U
- Reed Custer Community Unit School District 255U
The Fiscal Year 2026 budget invested $300 million in new funding into students’ success through the evidence-based funding model.
For more information on the FY 26 evidence-based funding distribution, visit the Illinois State Board of Education’s website.
