Changes

'''Illinois charter schools''' are authorized by charters for an initial 5-year term, and may be renewed for periods of up to 10 years.

'''Illinois charter schools''' are authorized by charters for an initial 5-year term, and may be renewed for periods of up to 10 years. There are 137 charter schools in Illinois as of 2022, and only 1 south of Springfield, in East St. Louis.  Springfield and Decatur each have one K-8 charter school, and next charter school north of them is in Bloomington.<ref>https://www.incschools.org/find-a-charter-school/?</ref>

There is a cap on the number of these schools allowed, but there is plenty of room under the cap and the total number of charter schools in [[Illinois]] is actually declining.  There is a separate cap for [[Chicago]], where one of every four [[public school|public high school]] students attends a charter school.  Chicago has a cap of 75 charter schools but there are fewer than 50 operating today (some having multiple campuses), while the cap outside of Chicago is 25 and there are only 15 in operation,<ref>https://www.incschools.org/start-a-charter/</ref> including only one downstate (in East St. Louis).

There is a cap on the number of these schools allowed, but there is plenty of room under the cap and the total number of charter schools in [[Illinois]] is actually declining.  There is a separate cap for [[Chicago]], where one of every four [[public school|public high school]] students attends a charter school.  Chicago has a cap of 75 charter schools but there are fewer than 50 operating today (some having multiple campuses), while the cap outside of Chicago is 25 and there are only 15 in operation,<ref>https://www.incschools.org/start-a-charter/</ref> including only one downstate (in East St. Louis).