University of Illinois Springfield has been rated as the top public regional university in the state for the eighth year in the Best Colleges rankings from U.S. News and World Report.

The Springfield School District 186 Board on Monday approved a fiscal year 2027 budget with a projected deficit of $10.9 million. Reserve funds will drop to about 5.6 percent to cover the deficit. Board policy calls for a 15 percent reserve.

Northwestern University and the University of Chicago are part of a three-way tie for ninth place with Johns Hopkins University.

UIS enrolled 353 freshmen this fall, up about 13 percent from fall 2025 and second to the 373 enrolled in the fall of 2019.

One incident involved a Glenwood Intermediate School student bringing a handgun lookalike on a bus and the other involved a Glenwood High School student making a threat on social media referencing the possibility of gun violence.

U.S. News and World Report has ranked Glenwood High School as the best high school in the Springfield metro area.

The guidelines include a three-strike rule for elementary students.

That's a $350 million increase over last year. Despite the increase, however, fewer districts will be funded at or above 90 percent of their adequacy target. And the adequacy gap in school funding will grow to $6.8 billion dollars.

SIU School of Medicine has launched a new Street Medicine Program to serve the homeless in Springfield. The program began in June.

A team from University of Illinois Springfield has been awarded a contract to write the historical content for a permanent exhibit on the 1908 Springfield Race Riot at the new Springfield Sangamon County Transportation HUB.