More than 1,400 high school students in Waterloo Region were suspended by Waterloo Public Health on Wednesday morning for having out-of-date vaccination records.
A total of 1,428 pupils from the area have been suspended under the Immunization of School Pupils Act (ISPA).
“The vaccines required under the act help to prevent serious infections and are important to maintain teenagers’ health and protect them from disease,” Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang, medical officer of health, said in a release.
“Reporting your vaccines or submitting an exemption will ensure a quick resolution of the suspension.”
The ISPA requires all elementary and secondary school students to have proof of vaccination for diphtheria, polio, tetanus, pertussis, measles, mumps, rubella, varicella (chickenpox) and meningitis.
Students need to either have the records or a valid exemption on file with Waterloo Public Health.
WPH has said a majority of the high school students who are not up to date are missing the meningococcal ACYW-135 vaccine or a booster for tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis (Tdap), which is required 10 years after the previous booster. The initial booster usually goes about between four and six years of age.
For several months, the region has been campaigning for people to get their children’s vaccinations up to date, including sending letters home to parents on a couple of occasions, warning that students’ records needed to be up to date or they would be suspended.
The move to suspend the high school students follows on the heels of a similar effort involving elementary school students in the area.
Towards the end of March, WPH announced suspensions for 2,969 elementary school students under the Immunization of School Pupils Act.
The last time suspensions over immunizations were issued was in 2019, when 517 secondary school students were suspended.
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