With students back in classrooms, Peel Region is urging parents to update children’s vaccination records as officials work to restore pre-pandemic immunization levels.

On Sept.16, the region issued a release notifying community members that Peel Public Health will review the vaccination records of roughly 27,500 students, focusing on kindergarten through Grade 3, and Grades 11 and 12.

Under the Immunization of School Pupils Act (ISPA), students attending primary or elementary school in Ontario are legally required to have up-to-date vaccination records for nine diseases, unless they have a legitimate exemption. These diseases include diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (whooping cough), polio, measles, mumps, rubella, meningococcal disease and varicella (chickenpox).

The most recent public health data, from 2024, shows that vaccination coverage among Peel students remains below pre-pandemic levels. Data from the 2025-2026 school year will be released in the coming weeks.

In 2024, Peel reported that due to the pandemic 50 per cent of students were missing a record of at least one vaccine required for school attendance. Coverage for routine school immunizations was also 10 to 36 percentage points below pre-pandemic levels. Prior to the pandemic, Peel’s immunization coverage was typically above 80 per cent, depending on the specific vaccine.

Peel Region has stated that “Starting in October, Peel Public Health will provide two separate notification letters within the period of a few months with instructions to give families time to catch up on missing vaccines or report doses before a suspension order is issued” and that vaccine-related suspensions will begin for students who haven’t submitted their updated records by the deadline in spring 2027.

Dr. Alexa Caturay, Peel Region’s medical officer of health, emphasized that suspensions are intended to be a last resort, with families given multiple reminders, support and opportunities to update their records or catch up on missing vaccinations before an order is issued.

Some of the decline in reported immunization coverage reflects missed or delayed reporting, as school closures and the diversion of health-care resources to combat COVID-19 disrupted the collection of vaccination records, according to Caturay.

However, Caturay also identified vaccine hesitancy as another factor in the decline of overall vaccination levels in Peel.

“In my experience some of the suspensions we’ve seen are related to the timely updating of records and access to information and then there is a smaller subset that is related to vaccine hesitancy,” said Caturay.

“We know that people’s trust in institutions is lower than what it was in pre-pandemic time so it means for us, as a health unit, that we need to work hard to gain people’s trust and talk to them about why vaccines are important for them and their communities,” Caturay added.

Ontario Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kieran Moore reported in 2024 that vaccine confidence has declined in Canada. Among parents of children under 18, 67 per cent said, in 2024, they would vaccinate their children without hesitation, compared with 88 per cent in 2019, representing a steep decline. The report also stated that parental skepticism about routine immunizations doubled during that same time period.

Across Ontario, there was also a decline in vaccinations for certain diseases. Measles immunization coverage among seven-year-olds, for example, fell from 86 per cent in 2019 to 2020, to 70 per cent in 2023 to 2024, according to provincial data.

To address gaps in vaccine confidence and information, Peel Region and Peel Public Health have undertaken a communications strategy to provide residents with accurate and timely information about immunization.

“In a world where information increasingly comes from a wide variety of sources that’s harder and harder to vet … This becomes really difficult. The types of things that we do is outreach through our school boards, outreach through communications channels that we use, like putting up to date information on our website, and talking to journalists,” said Caturay.

Peel has also held hundreds of vaccination clinics through schools, community hubs and mobile sites, including evening and weekend clinics to reduce barriers to accessing vaccines.

Additionally, Peel has worked to make its immunization information accessible to communities with different languages and experiences with the health-care system.

“We have translated materials in 40 languages … and work with providers that provide culturally sensitive care,” said Caturay.

Peel Region has worked with local partners to hold clinics specifically for Black, African and Caribbean communities, to encourage immunization and receive culturally appropriate information

Further, Peel has stated that it is working with community groups and settlement agencies as a part of its immunization strategy.

To ensure newcomers to Canada can access vaccinations, Caturay stated that an Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) card is not needed for students to be immunized against the nine designated diseases.

“Things like not having an OHIP card, or not having insurance coverage for vaccines shouldn’t be a barrier. So if you’re a newcomer and don’t have an OHIP card you can call Peel public health and we can help,” said Caturay.

Caturay stated that ensuring families can access and understand the importance of immunization is key to protecting ourselves and the people around us.

“Vaccines are safe and effective. They are some of the safest and most effective health preventions and we want to make sure we can all benefit from our communities staying safe,” said Caturay.

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