in 1997 (HB 452)1 and the Property Tax Extension Limitation Law (PTELL or

bly sent a strong message that Illinois schools must be more fiscally respon-sible. As Illinois school districts con-sider their educational mission into the 21st century, a top priority for most Illi-nois districts will be the issue of ad-equate school funding. One major source of funding for Illinois school dis-tricts will continue to be local property taxation. Therefore, the future viability of these districts depends upon a stable, yet vibrant, property tax base. If this is not possible, a potential result for some districts could be the consideration of district reorganization (e.g., consolida-tion or annexation/detachment) to best meet students ’ educational needs. This article provides a synopsis of the sec-tions of the School Code that refer to school district reorganization options and the requisite procedures involved to accomplish these changes.3 I. Boundary Change A school district may elect or be forced to alter its geographical bound-aries. Boundary changes, or configura-tions, are typically the result of modifi-cations in economic conditions and population shifts. Specifically, increas-ing costs, declining enrollment, decreas-ing local tax base, deteriorating school plant facilities, and collective bargain-ing likely contribute to consideration of district boundary changes. In order to understand the various options for boundary configurations, it is necessary to have a fundamental knowledge of the organizational types of Illinois school districts. Types of School Districts Illinois is unique because school districts are organized in different ways. The difference in names and terminol-ogy reflect the terms in use at the time the districts were organized ( i.e., com