School District No. 46 (SD46) has passed an amendment to its student health regulation that deals with the immunization of “mature minors” at school without the consent of parents.
The regulation change was being pitched to fall into line with what other school districts in B.C. were doing and to conform to the Infant Act.
Originally the regulation change caused some concern among parents, which led to a clarification in the regulation, according to superintendent of schools Patrick Bocking, who reported to school board trustees during their Feb. 9 regular meeting.
“We received a small amount of input from this – perhaps five or six emails,” Bocking said at the meeting, noting he also attended a meeting with members of the Langdale Elementary Parents Advisory Committee (PAC) who expressed concern and wanted more information.
“It renewed to me the importance of the regulations going out for a couple of months so people can review it and if they have any concerns, address it with us,” Bocking said.
“In this case there was a lack of clarity in the initial draft, which is why it’s a draft, so that we can respond to that.”
Bocking said it wasn’t clear that the intention of the regulation was to immunize high school students without parental consent only if parents could not be contacted.
“We would never immunize or allow immunizations to take place on our school district property with elementary students. So we’ve adjusted that so it’s clear it’s a secondary issue,” Bocking said.
He noted some concern was also raised by the Langdale PAC around how they would be notified of future regulation changes they might want to have input on.
“So I made a commitment that any time regulations come forward, I’ll make sure it’s part of my report at DPAC [District Parents Advisory Committee] so that through that mechanism that message can get out to PACs and if they are interested, they can look … into it and get back to us,” Bocking said.
Trustees seemed content with Bocking’s report and the tweak to the health regulation, so it was passed unanimously.
The new immunization section reads: “On the Sunshine Coast, effort will be made well ahead of the immunizations date to obtain parental representative consent for all school-based immunization programs. Immunization will occur only with parental consent at elementary schools. In accordance with the Infant Act, administration of immunization at the secondary schools will occur with either parental consent or, if the parent cannot be contacted, by consent of the mature minor.”
