Impact of publicly available vaccination rates on parental school and child care choice

•Preferences for school/child care choice and predicted behaviors were measured.•In this context, parents value knowing school/child care vaccination rates.•Vaccine-hesitant and non-hesitant parents value vaccination rate information.•Reporting these rates may affect school/child care choice. Several states require schools and child cares to report vaccination rates, yet little is known about the impact of these policies. Our objectives were to assess: (1) predicted impact of vaccination rates on school/child care choice, (2) differences between vaccine hesitant and non-hesitant parents, and (3) differences by child’s age. In 2016, a cross-sectional email survey of Colorado mothers with children ≤12 years old assessed value of vaccination rates in the context of school/child care choice. A willingness-to-pay framework measured preference for schools/child cares with different vaccination rates using tradeoff with commute time. Response rate was 42% (679/1630). Twelve percent of respondents were vaccine hesitant. On a scale where 1 is “not important at all” and 4 is “very important” parents rated the importance of vaccination rates at 3.08. Respondents (including vaccine-hesitant respondents) would accept longer commutes to avoid schools/child cares with lower vaccination rates. Parents of child-care-age children were more likely to consider vaccination rates important. This study shows parents highly value vaccination rates in the context of school and child care choice. Both hesitant and non-hesitant parents are willing to accept longer commute times to protect their children from vaccine-preventable diseases.