Toronto Public Health will not suspend 30K students over their outstanding vaccine records this year

Outdoor winter boots sit under name tags in a hallway at an elementary school in Toronto on Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

Tens of thousands of students who were threatened with suspension over their vaccination status will be able to remain in the classroom for the rest of the year in order to “give families more time to report records and get children up to date,” public health officials in Toronto say.

In a news release on Tuesday, Toronto Public Health (TPH) said it reviewed vaccine records for students in Grades 2-5 in Toronto’s public schools and sent a letter home with notice of a suspension order between November and February if they were found out-of-date.

“More than 50,000 student records were not up to date at the start of the school year. While many students have been caught up, there are still approximately 30,000 students who are outstanding,” the news release reads.

TPH says it won’t suspend any more students under the Immunization of School Pupils Act (ISPA) for the rest of the school year, as a way to give parents time to update their child’s records.

ISPA’s rules will, however, still apply.

This means parents are required to provide their children’s immunization cards to the health unit or seek a formal exemption for medical reasons, or on the grounds of conscience or religious beliefs. All non-medical exemptions require parents and guardians to complete a mandatory education session.

Under the province’s immunization schedule, students need vaccines for measles, mumps, diphtheria, rubella, tetanus, polio, pertussis (whooping cough) and meningococcal disease. For students born in 2010 or later, Ontario requires them to also be immunized for varicella, colloquially known as chickenpox.

“TPH will continue to help families report records and get students up to date with required vaccines or exemptions,” the letter reads.

The health unit did not say how many students within Toronto’s school districts were suspended over their immunization records in the 2025-26 school year.

In January, CTV News Toronto spoke with parents in Peel Region who reported their children being suspended from school over out-of-date vaccine records they say they had submitted to Peel Public Health (PPH).

• READ MORE: Two students were suspended from Peel schools over outdated vaccine records. They were fully immunized

PPH confirmed to CTV News then that there was a point where a total of 5,397 students were suspended after they were found in contravention with IPSA.

The health unit said schools, under the direction from local health units, have the authority to suspend students if they do not have updated immunization records.