TORONTO – Public health records for schools in Ottawa and Toronto reveal that over half of the students evaluated this year lack up-to-date immunization records. Experts describe this situation as indicative of an outdated system that hinders efforts to improve vaccination rates.
Toronto Public Health reported that it dispatched 60,000 letters during the summer to students in Grades 2 to 5 who had not submitted their immunization records. According to the Immunization of School Pupils Act, students must be vaccinated against nine specified diseases to attend school.
As of early October, approximately 54 percent—equating to 50,000—of students in Toronto were deemed non-compliant and will receive suspension notices if their records are not updated in the following months. In a similar trend, Ottawa’s public health unit indicated that around 16,000 students in Grades 2 and 12 had not updated their immunization records, representing more than 66 percent of children in these age groups.
In Ontario, it is the responsibility of parents to provide immunization records to local public health units, which also send notifications to households that have not submitted records or applied for exemptions. Each year, these units select specific cohorts to assess for compliance with vaccination requirements.
Toronto Public Health noted that in certain grades, only about 25 percent of students possess up-to-date vaccination records, particularly among elementary school students. Public health experts argue that the significant volume of letters sent out illustrates the complexity of the process, which often requires parents to locate yellow cards or printouts from healthcare providers, resulting in incomplete data for public health officials.
Dr. Michelle Murti, Toronto’s Medical Officer of Health, stated in an interview that the current system is not ideal and needs improvement. This issue is particularly critical as Canada faces a decline in vaccination rates while contending with rampant misinformation spread online. Currently, the country is at risk of losing its measles-free status due to an ongoing outbreak that has infected over 5,000 people in the past year. Canada may need to demonstrate vaccination rates of 95 percent or higher and effective monitoring systems to reclaim its status.
Dr. Murti highlighted the importance of creating a centralized provincial or national registry where health providers can directly input vaccination records. This is a long-standing request from medical professionals. Ontario’s chief medical officer, Dr. Kieran Moore, echoed this call last month but recognized the challenges of integrating data from various healthcare providers using different systems. The Ministry of Health has indicated it is working on a digital tool to improve access to vaccine records and personal health information, though no timeline for completion has been announced.
Dr. Milena Forte, a family physician and a parent in Toronto, shared her experiences with the faulty vaccine reporting system. She recounted an instance in which a mother brought her children for a check-up after receiving a notification from Toronto Public Health about missing vaccinations. Upon reviewing the children’s records, she confirmed they were up to date, emphasizing the inefficiencies created by the existing process, which wastes resources on redundant tasks.
Last year, Hamilton’s public health unit sent notifications to almost 22,000 parents regarding incomplete vaccination records for students in Grades 1 to 3 and 8 to 12, equating to about 38 percent of those students. Ultimately, around 6,400 of those students faced suspension due to non-compliance.
In the 2024-2025 school year, Toronto Public Health reported that 6,090 students were suspended for at least one day, with over 4,400 still in suspension by the second day. Joe Crampton, a Hamilton father of two, criticized the lack of a consolidated system for tracking immunizations, drawing parallels to how financial institutions manage client information securely and efficiently.
Dr. Kumanan Wilson from Ottawa has been advocating for a vaccine registry for nearly two decades. He notes that while the challenges remain the same, the resurgence of vaccine-preventable diseases like measles has intensified the urgency to address this issue.
