When parents in Ephrata, Pennsylvania, dropped their children off at Mennonite School last fall, fewer than half of the kindergartners were vaccinated against measles — a statistic that reflects a quiet but growing vulnerability in communities across the state. Soon, families across Pennsylvania will be able to see those numbers for themselves, as the state prepares to launch a public database revealing vaccination rates at individual schools. The move comes in response to alarming data: more than 200 schools in the Philadelphia region alone have measles vaccination rates too low to prevent an outbreak, leaving communities exposed to a disease once thought nearly eradicated. With 66 measles cases reported in Pennsylvania so far this year — the highest in three decades and more than four times the number from 2025 — public health officials are acting to bring clarity to a crisis hiding in plain sight.
For years, families had access only to county-level immunization data, which often masked dangerous pockets of under-vaccination. A school in a county with high overall vaccination rates could still have dangerously low protection, but parents had no way of knowing. Now, following investigative reporting by The Inquirer and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and spurred by Governor Josh Shapiro’s executive order to improve vaccine access, the Pennsylvania Department of Health is flipping the script. Starting before the next school year, parents will be able to search vaccination rates by school, grade, and vaccine type, including how many students are attending without approved exemptions. The tool excludes schools with fewer than 20 kindergartners to protect student privacy, but for the rest, the data will be transparent and searchable.
The initiative is not about assigning blame, says Health Secretary Dr. Debra Bogen, but about empowering families with science-backed information. “We want to help ensure that parents, guardians, students, and community members have accurate, science-backed information to make immunization decisions for their family,” she said in a joint letter to school officials. The data could also prompt schools to partner with local health providers to host vaccine clinics, removing access barriers that some families face. In Delaware County, where some of the region’s lowest kindergarten vaccination rates have been recorded, public health leaders see the tool as a chance to spark informed conversations. “Making this transparent at the school level helps parents, helps schools, helps all of us,” said one county health official.
Even in communities like Ephrata, where vaccination rates remain low due to long-standing religious and philosophical beliefs, school leaders like Joshua Good support the transparency. “Information is always good, so that folks can make their best decisions,” he said. The new database won’t solve vaccine hesitancy overnight, but it marks a shift toward openness — and a step toward protecting children not just in one classroom, but across an entire state.