pc28¹ÙÍø

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 pc28¹ÙÍøhigh 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 pc28¹ÙÍøpost-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.

Why are some pc28¹ÙÍøGrade 11 students being suspended? 

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. 

How does TPH decide who to send suspension orders to?

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. 

What to do if your child receives a suspension order, but has all their vaccines? 

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.”

What can parents do if their child receive a suspension order? 

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.