For the first time in many years, the Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit is applying Immunization of School Pupils Act legislation to all students in its coverage area, which includes Cobourg and Port Hope and surrounding regions.

Students who are not up-to-date and don't have a valid exemption on file are subject to suspension.

In recent years, they picked certain grades to enforce the legislation. Marianne Rock, the health unit’s manager of communicable diseases and prevention control, says the backlog has lot to do with limited access to healthcare centres during the pandemic and students need to get caught up.

"We do know through data from the province that there are a number of kids that are still overdue...so we really felt as a health unit we needed to take this step to make sure that we can start fresh next year, get everyone as much as possible caught up and then we can start next year with a sort of clean slate and hopefully we'll get as many kids caught up as possible," Rock said.

The health unit sent letters this past summer to more than 6,000 parents of students who are overdue for some or all vaccinations and hosted some clinics for school vaccinations. Required vaccines are for tetanus, polio, measles, mumps, rubella, hepatitis and more.  

Rock said there was a good response, but about 4,500 students in HKPR’s coverage area still don’t have up to date records. Approved exemptions must be on file.

Rock said the ISPA students to either get vaccinated or get an exemption, otherwise they are subject to suspension. The health unit attempts to contact parents first before involving a school’s principal who would get the suspension order. Parents have a number of weeks in each case to get records up to date or get the exemption.

While some healthcare providers will submit records to the health unit, Rock said it’s not a requirement and it’s up to the families to ensure records are up to date, noting some of the 4,500 remaining might be up to date on their vaccinations, but not on record with the health unit.

Rock said it’s also important for parents to ensure their mailing address is current with their school.

Any parents with questions can e-mail info@hkpr.on.ca or check out the health unit's website for more contact information.

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