Cocalico School District and Lancaster Academy of Performing Arts are helping the state perform contact tracing related to the five cases of measles confirmed in Lancaster County Monday.
Individuals in two Cocalico School District buildings were affected, district spokesperson Allison Ohline said.
The state Department of Health contacted the district “regarding possible measles exposure at two of our buildings,” Ohline said. “We have complied with DOH procedures, and the appropriate staff and families were notified.”
The Lancaster Academy for the Performing Arts, on Columbia Avenue in Lancaster Township, is a Christian educational and performance arts academy, according to its website. The academy serves 230 homeschool students in grades one through 12. Representatives from the academy did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday after state officials confirmed they were working with the academy to conduct contact tracing.
Contact tracing, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website, includes identifying those who have been in proximity to the individuals with measles and the places the infected people have visited.
Contact tracing is a critical moment as public health authorities work to limit the spread of the highly contagious and potentially deadly virus. Symptoms of measles infection can take as long as two weeks to develop, which means a person could unwittingly spread the virus without knowing they are infected for that long. Once contact tracing locates an individual who has been in proximity to a measles case, they are notified and advised of steps, like quarantining at home, to break further transmission of the virus.
READ: 5 cases of measles confirmed in Lancaster County: PA Dept of Health
Commissioner: Vaccine is safe, effective
This latest information about the outbreak came as Lancaster County Commissioner Alice Yoder urged parents on Wednesday to talk to their family doctor about getting healthy children vaccinated. The Department of Health confirmed the five Lancaster County individuals with measles were unvaccinated.
“We face a concerning trend,” Yoder said during a regular meeting of the Lancaster County Commissioners. “Vaccination coverage has declined nationally and locally.”
Diseases with vaccines like measles, Yoder said, are preventable. “That just makes this a little bit more concerning to me. This is something we can take control over.”
Vaccination rates have recently dipped in Lancaster County, due primarily to two trends stemming from the pandemic. During the lockdowns, fewer children made it to regularly scheduled doctors’ visits where they could have been vaccinated. In addition, the pandemic prompted more people to question vaccination in general.
In Lancaster County, the measles – or MMR – vaccination rate among kindergartners was 88.5% in 2024-25, according to the state Department of Health. That’s below the level needed for herd immunity, which is 95%.
In late 2025, The Washington Post released school-specific vaccination rate data. In the Cocalico School District, Denver Elementary School has an MMR vaccination rate of 91% for 78 students. Reamstown Elementary has a vaccination rate of 91.2% of 68 students and Adamstown Elementary has a vacation rate of 95.2% of 62 students. The Washington Post did not include data for the Lancaster Academy of Performing Arts.
Yoder, who was elected commissioner in 2023, started her career as a critical care registered nurse. She earned her master’s degree in nursing from Villanova University where she focused on health promotion, wellness and disease prevention. In 1992, she started the Wellness Center at Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health and worked as the executive director of community health there until 2023.
“There are other children out there that cannot get vaccinated and have other illnesses that, if they catch one of the diseases that are protected with immunizations, it could be very deadly for them,” Yoder said.
According to public health data, two doses of the MMR vaccine are 97% effective, Department of Health Press Secretary Neil Ruhland said Wednesday afternoon. A child can receive the first dose at 12 to 15 months of age and the second dose between the ages of 4 and 6.
“I trust science and facts,” Yoder said. “The measles vaccine is safe, highly effective and one of the most important tools we have to protect our community, especially infants.”
LNP | LancasterOnline reporter Tom Lisi contributed to this report.
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