My child missed their Grade 7/8 vaccines - what do I do now?

In Ontario, students normally receive a series of vaccinations in Grade 7 or 8 for the following vaccines:

  1. Two doses of a vaccine for the Human Papilloma Virus, given 6 months apart

  2. Two doses of a vaccine for Hepatitis B, given 6 months apart 

  3. One dose of a vaccine for Meningococcal disease

These vaccines are normally given by your local public health unit at your child’s school (more information about this program here). You can find out more about each vaccine with the links above, and about Ontario’s routine vaccination schedule here.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Toronto Public Health’s school-based vaccination programs were put on hold.  As a result, many students who were in Grade 7 or 8 during the 2020 and 2021 school years missed these vaccines, or had the schedule interrupted during that time.

For those who live or study in Toronto, we’re happy to advise that Toronto Public Health is now offering these catch up vaccines as their clinics again!

These vaccines are free for students completing grades 7 to 12 at TPH Vaccine Clinics. OHIP is not required. Walk-in or make an appointment online. New clinics are added each week and are also available on evenings and weekends.

You can request a copy of your child’s immunization records with Magenta Health here. To forestall the potential question, we would kindly like to advise that we typically do not have a record of whether or not patients have received the vaccines normally given in Grade 7/8. In general, we only have immunization records of vaccines that patients have either received through Magenta Health, or that patients have previously reported to us.

To gather additional records regarding your child’s immunization records, please review this Toronto Public Health site and contact previous health care providers.

If you do gather additional vaccination records, please send us to them at contact@magentahealth.ca so we can update our records accordingly.

Should you have any medically-related questions after reviewing the above information, a regular appointment with your physician would be the appropriate next step.