1,400 students suspended by health unit
The Windsor-essex County Health Unit suspended 1,400 elementary students from school Wednesday for having incomplete immunization records.
The suspensions were handed out “in an effort to keep our community safe and healthy from the spread of vaccine-preventable diseases,” Dr. Wajid Ahmed, medical officer of health with the health unit, said in a news release Wednesday.
Once a parent or guardian provides the health unit with an updated immunization record for their child, the record will be updated, and the parent or guardian and school principal will be informed before the suspension is lifted and the student can return to school.
Walk-in immunization clinics are available at the health unit starting Wednesday and lasting throughout the week. The health unit accepts immunization records in person between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday at its Windsor (1005 Ouellette Ave.) and Leamington (33 Princess St.) offices.
A student’s primary care provider can also fax an updated immunization record to the health unit at 519-258-7288.
The Immunization of School Pupils Act requires public health units to maintain and review vaccine records for every student attending school, and to enforce a school suspension for incomplete immunization information.
The health unit undertook a review of all elementary students’ immunization records in the fall of 2019. In November, students with incomplete records were given notices.
Although many parents and guardians then updated their child’s record with the health unit, “a considerable number of records remained incomplete,” the health unit said in a February news release on the same issue.
Final suspension notices were handed out in January. Those specified that required vaccine or vaccines were missing from a student’s record and provided information on how to update immunization information with the health unit.
The health unit warned that students with incomplete immunization records would be suspended from school for up to 20 days.
“I’m hopeful that parents and guardians will provide up to date immunization records of their children to the (Windsor-essex County Health Unit), so that suspensions can be lifted quickly,” Ahmed said.
In 2019, about 1,200 students with incomplete records were not suspended, despite receiving suspension notices because of a worker strike by health unit nurses that began in March of that year.
In 2018, nearly 400 high school students were suspended, and 659 elementary students the year before that.
According to the Ministry of Health and Long-term Care website, children and adolescents attending primary and secondary school in Ontario must have proof of immunization against diphtheria, tetanus, polio, measles, mumps, rubella, meningococcal disease, pertussis (whooping cough) and varicella (chickenpox), or have a valid exemption on file at the local health unit.