Education
Part of the village is served by an Unit School District, the Elgin Area School District U46. It serves an area of some 90 square miles (230 km²) in Cook, DuPage and Kane Counties. Almost 40,000 children of school age are in its area. District U-46 is the second largest in Illinois. High school students who live within the U-46 boundaries attend Bartlett High School.

The western section of the village is served by Benjamin School District 25, a small, two-school district. Evergreen Elementary School is located in Carol Stream while Benjamin Middle School is nearby in unincorporated West Chicago. Founded in the 1840s, Benjamin 25 is one of the oldest school districts in DuPage County. High school students from Benjamin attend West Chicago Community High, District 94.
However, most students in Carol Stream attend school in the Consolidated School District 93, a K-8 district. The District 93 schools in Carol Stream are Carol Stream School, Cloverdale School, Heritage Lakes, Western Trails, Roy DeShane and Jay Stream Middle School. District 93 is only K-8; thus, students must attend a different district when they reach the high school level. They are served by Glenbard Township High School District 87 (the third largest school district in Illinois), which includes Glenbard North, located in Carol Stream.
 
Transportation
Carol Stream has, by and large, six major roads running through the village. The most important of these is North Avenue, which runs relatively close to the center of Carol Stream and serves the majority of its industrial areas. North Avenue is an East-West road which extends a further 30 miles East into Chicago as well as further west across the state. Army Trail Road and Geneva Road are the other major east-west roads.
 Gary Avenue is a major north-south road to the commercial center of Bloomingdale and the Stratford Square Mall. County Farm Road also serves as a major commercial route for residents. Schmale Road serves a small commercial area on the southeastern side of Carol Stream.
 A feeder line from the nearby Illinois Central railroad serves the main industrial complex for Carol Stream. The old Gretna Railway Station was preserved and moved to the Carol Stream Park District, where it serves as a museum and a home for the Carol Stream Historical Society.