“It is working.”
This from Public Health Nurse Elizabeth Mete, who says the current system of reminders to parents about immunizations for their children sees the majority of the outliers immunized (or records with missing information updated) well before any suspension is handed out.
“Our numbers are looking better than they were last year,” and just looking at the number of records examined every year, Mete says “the numbers keep coming down. The more we can get the message out there that this is coming, that there’s still a lot of time left to get these situations rectified, we’re heading in the right direction.”
Mete is a member of the vaccination program at the North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit and she says they have recently sent out 972 first notices to high school students and 760 to elementary students.
“Until we get down to suspension day, we won’t know how many have already submitted the information or gotten immunized,” she says. “Last year, for high school, we sent out 986, so that’s a decline, and for elementary, we sent out 841 first notices, so that’s down almost 100.”
Of those 986 secondary school notices sent out in 2018, 73 students ultimately were suspended from school for their immunization records being out-of-date without an exemption.
Students must have updated vaccinations, by law, to attend school in Ontario unless they are exempted for medical reasons or for conscience or religious belief.
“Most of the time, they’ve been immunized at their doctor’s offices and the information just hasn’t been forwarded to the health unit,” says Mete, adding “once suspension day comes, a good portion of these are resolved within one day.”
High school students have until March 6 to get the complete vaccination record information to the Health Unit or to get immunized. Mete says clinics will be run in all of the different schools to facilitate the process in the coming weeks.
For elementary schools, there are two deadlines to update information. For students in the Near North District School Board, records must be updated by March 20, and the date is April 3 for the remaining school boards.
Here’s how to update your child’s information:
- It is the parent’s responsibility to ensure the Health Unit has all of their child’s vaccination information. Health care providers may not have forwarded this information to the Health Unit.
- If the student’ s yellow card lists all the vaccinations they have received, the parent can provide the Health Unit with a copy.
- Vaccination records can be reviewed and missing information submitted online at www.myhealthunit.ca/reportvaccines utilizing the Immunization Connect Ontario Tool.
- If an appointment for a vaccination has been made but not yet administered, the student may still receive a suspension notice. The suspension will not be enforced if the student is vaccinated and the Health Unit is provided the information before the suspension date.
If your child needs vaccinations:
- Call the Health Unit to make an appointment for the required vaccinations at 705-474-1400 or 1-800-563-2808 x.5252.
- Vaccinations at a health care provider’s office must still be forwarded to the Health Unit, before the suspension date, to ensure records are accurately updated.
- Contact the Health Unit to discuss options for parents who do not wish to vaccinate their child.
