The Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit is sending a final reminder to parents and guardians to ensure their child is up to date on their immunizations and to update their child’s vaccination record with the Health Unit to avoid suspension from school in February.

 The Immunization of School Pupils Act (ISPA) R.S.O.1990 requires all students in Ontario to be vaccinated, or have a valid exemption, against tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis, polio, measles, mumps, rubella, meningococcal disease and varicella. 

The local Health Unit is required to maintain and review vaccine records and exemptions for every student attending school within Northumberland County, the City of Kawartha Lakes and the County of Haliburton. Students with incomplete records are at risk of being suspended from school.

Throughout the 2022-23 school year, the health unit addressed the disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic by mailing out notices to parents of students who were overdue for immunizations, stressing the importance of maintaining up to date records with the Health Unit was reiterated within the notice. This educational approach led to over 2,700 immunization records being updated since the fall of 2022 when the enforcement program resumed following the pandemic.

Now the HKPR Health Unit is mailing out 1,374 suspension notices to parents of students in Grades 3 and Grades 9 to 12 who do not meet the ISPA requirements. 

This means the student’s record with the Health Unit is missing information, either because a parent and/or guardian has not yet submitted the immunization information or a valid exemption to the Health Unit, or the student has not yet received the immunizations. If the Health Unit does not receive the required information for a student’s immunization file, they will be suspended from school starting February 5th, 2024, for up to 20 days or until public health records are updated to meet ISPA requirements.

More school-aged immunization clinics have been scheduled this month, including Wednesday, January 31st in Port Hope.

Visit events.hkpr.on.ca for more details.