![Athletes from three school districts — Hutsonville CUSD1, Palestine CUSD3, and Oblong CUSD4 — merged in fall 2018 to field a single football team. Meanwhile, their school districts remain separate.](https://will.illinois.edu/images/uploads/53066/iiid-consolidation__medium.png)
Illinois Issues: What Stops School Consolidation?
Illinois has 852 school districts — the third highest number of any state in the nation. Some are just single schools, with fewer than a hundred students. But getting districts to merge, or consolidate, has proven difficult.