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Toronto health officials issue reminder about elementary student vaccination, non-compliance could trigger suspension

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Students across Toronto will head back to school next week, and the city’s health officials say they need to be caught up on their vaccinations or risk a 20-day suspension.

Toronto Public Health (TPH) issued the reminder in a news release to parents and guardians on Wednesday.

“All students are required to have certain vaccinations as outlined in Ontario’s Immunization of School Pupils Act (ISPA) unless they have a valid exemption,” TPH wrote.

The vaccines include measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, tetanus, polio, pertussis (whooping cough), meningococcal, and for students born in 2010 or later, varicella (chicken pox).

TPH’s reminder comes amid an ongoing measles outbreak in Ontario that has largely affected unimmunized individuals in the province’s southwest.

As such, TPH said that during this upcoming school year, officials will assess and enforce the ISPA requirements for public elementary students born between 2015 and 2018 (grades 2 to 5).

“As the risk of measles exposure in Ontario persists, TPH will assess these grades due to low rates of submitted measles vaccine records,” the news release read.

Health officials said that students who are missing any of the records required for ISPA compliance may face suspension for up to 20 school days.

In April, TPH started issuing suspension orders to more than 10,000 high school students who had not received their shots or submitted a valid exemption. It’s unclear how many of those students were ultimately suspended before they were found to be in compliance with the ISPA.

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