Over 2,500 Hamilton high school students suspended for missing vaccine records

Over 2,500 Hamilton high school students have been suspended for missing vaccine records after public health officials sent out multiple rounds of warnings to parents.

Since the 2022/23 school year, public health has resumed the annual screening of vaccination records for all students enrolled in Hamilton schools.

Up-to-date vaccination records are required under the Immunization of School Pupils Act (ISPA), but the number of students with updated records is significantly lower compared to pre-pandemic numbers.

According to associate medical officer of health Dr. Brendan Lew, 8,750 screening letters were sent to Hamilton students in grades 9-12 to notify parents of missing or out-of-date vaccination records.

Enforcement orders were issued on Feb. 5.

By March 7 – the first day of suspensions for this wave of enforcement – 2,511 students had failed to prove they were vaccinated against measles, mumps, rubella and other infectious diseases.

These students remain suspended for up to 20 days or until public health receives and validates their vaccination record or a valid exemption.

The suspensions come in the midst of a province-wide outbreak of measles, which doctors say is spreading rapidly through unvaccinated community members.

“Vaccinations are an effective and important tool for preventing outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases in school community populations and at the community level,” Dr. Lew said in a statement.

“When vaccination rates drop in a community, it is easier for diseases to spread amongst unvaccinated and under-vaccinated individuals and can cause outbreaks of serious diseases.”

READ MORE: Public Health Ontario: measles cases have more than doubled