Toronto Public Health is starting to suspend students over their vaccine records. Here's what to do if you've received a letter
Toronto Public Health has started to issue suspensions to some of the thousands of Toronto high school students whose records aren't up to date on required vaccinations.
In a statement, the agency said over 10,000 Grade 11 students born in 2008 aren't caught up on immunizations in accordance with Ontario's Immunization of School Pupils Act (ISPA). TPH is gradually rolling out these suspension orders, starting with 21 secondary schools, from which an initial group of 173 pupils were suspended Tuesday — a number that has since decreased to 131, according to Dr. Vinita Dubey.
Dubey, TPH's associate medical officer of health, told the Star on Wednesday the decline in the suspensions is due to more vaccinations or valid exemptions being reported after the initial suspension orders. As of Wednesday, of a second group of students from another 20 public Toronto high schools, 268 Grade 11 students are being suspended.
'Every day there's going to be more and more students who will be suspended. And hopefully more and more students who will also come off the suspension list,' she said. Suspensions will be sent across Toronto post-secondary schools on a rolling schedule until May.
TPH says from the first batch of students at the 21 schools, the records of 957 students — about 70 per cent — weren't up to date at first, which means they received a letter from TPH about the missing vaccinations. A month later, 58 per cent were up to date. The remaining 574 students were sent suspension orders.
Ontario is experiencing one of its largest
measles
outbreaks in decades though
most recent vaccine suspensions are related to other diseases
.
The ISPA requires students to be vaccinated for diphtheria, tetanus, polio, measles, mumps, rubella, meningococcal disease and pertussis (whooping cough). Students must also receive the vaccine for varicella — commonly known as chickenpox — if they're born in 2010 or later. Under this act, immunizations for the nine diseases are mandatory unless a valid exemption is on file, for medical, religious or conscientious reasons. Failure to meet these requirements could lead to a suspension from school for up to 20 days.
During the
COVID-19
pandemic, routine school-based vaccination programs for Grade 7 students were mostly unavailable, resulting in a number of current Grade 11 students falling behind on vaccinations for hepatitis B, HPV and meningococcal vaccines.
Dubey said it's normal for parents and students to take a while to respond to these letters due to factors including language barriers for newcomers and situations when parents don't recognize 'this is something that has to be dealt with right away, or even that there's a suspension associated with this.' The agency doesn't just rely on the letter to inform parents but also sends the suspension list to principals to contact students' parents.
Immunization assessments were conducted by TPH starting in the fall, revealing that of the 24,678 students born in 2008, only 26 per cent were initially on record with their vaccinations, prompting the agency to send letters to the families of 18,320 students missing immunizations. By February, 59 per cent of students were up to date — but the remaining 10,000 who didn't meet the ISPA got notices that if they didn't provide updated information to TPH, they would be suspended.
Dubey said sometimes the onus is on parents to contact TPH to provide a child's up-to-date immunization record to avoid suspension, even if their child has already received their required vaccines. This is because sometimes TPH doesn't have all records or the child might be missing a booster dose.
'What parents don't recognize is their child may be fully vaccinated and they did the right thing and they got the vaccination,' she said. 'But unfortunately, there's no way for the physician to report the vaccination directly to public health. And so this is where the parent actually has to report the vaccination to us,' she said, adding that they're 'better off' contacting TPH to make sure the record is up to date.
TPH says this 'underscores the importance of an
electronic immunization registry
.'
TPH can help clarify to parents what vaccines their children are missing and Dubey says 'as long as we know that the child has started the process of getting vaccinations, we can pause the suspension.'
Parents and students can call TPH (416-338-7600) for questions.
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