Medical officer of health Dr. Nicola Mercer says close to 300 students will likely be suspended this month in Wellington, Dufferin and Guelph high schools due to incomplete immunization records.
“We have been diligently working to immunize kids, to collect their records,” Mercer said at the March 2 Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health (WDGPH) board meeting.
“We have gone into high schools offering clinics.”
Since 1982 all children between four and 17 years of age have been required to receive standard immunizations under the Immunization of School Pupils Act.
“The purpose of this act is to improve the health of children by protecting them from diseases that spread easily in schools,” states a public health report presented at the March 2 WDGPH meeting.
Parents who choose not to immunize their child can file an exemption with public health.
Late in 2015 the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care released Immunize 2020, modernizing Ontario’s publicly funded immunization program.
“The Immunize 2020 report urges a comprehensive system-wide approach to the immunization program,” the report states. “It focuses on new vaccines and technologies, and on ways of strengthening the current system.”
For 2016 the ministry included an accountability indicator to measure assessments and suspensions of 7- and 17-year-olds in local areas.
To date in Wellington, Dufferin and Guelph, only 17-year-olds’ records have been assessed. In April the same will be done for 7-year-olds.
In January all 17-year-old students’ immunization records were assessed and on Feb. 5 public health sent out 2,300 letters notifying students their immunization records were out of date.
From Feb. 16 to March 2 immunization clinics were offered at all area high schools and this month suspensions will commence for those students who have not updated their record.
As of press time about 900 students still had not updated their immunization records, explained communications specialist Sharon Ord.
However, based on student response and the catch-up immunization clinics being offered at WDGPH offices during March break (March 14 to 18) the health unit forecasts fewer students will face suspension.
“We are anticipating our numbers for suspension will be less than 300,” Mercer said.
Board member Allen Taylor said he was surprised there were so many students still without the immunizations after public health’s clinics.
“Are these folks just particularly obstinate?” he asked.
Mercer said it could be because some 17-year-olds in high school take all of their classes online and are never present to attend clinics, while some other students rarely show up for school.
“They either come from families with circumstances where their families don’t care or that they are so disadvantaged or sort of not connected to the school,” she said.
“There are kids who really show up very rarely at school and we are very sensitive to that and I think it is important to say really clearly that we do not want to suspend any children and I think our whole goal here is to ensure that children stay in school.”
Come April, the immunization records of 7-year-old students will be assessed. On April 20 and 25, letters are scheduled to be sent home indicating missing immunizations. In May public health offices will host immunization clinics to administer missing immunizations and collect records.
May 13 is scheduled as the last day parents can bring immunization records to public health, after which time suspensions will commence.
Assessments for all students aged 4 to 16 years of age will commence in May and letters indicated missing immunizations will be sent out in June.
Immunizations under the Immunization of School Pupils Act include: diphtheria, tetanus, polio, measles, mumps, rubella, meningococcal disease, pertussis and varicella (the latter applies only to children born on or after Jan. 1, 2010.)
To report immunizations and for more information visit www.immunizewdg.ca.
