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After months of warning parents to provide proof their children have been vaccinated, Ottawa’s health department has begun issuing school suspensions to children with missing or outdated records.

The 20-day suspensions will begin as early as Tuesday for the first of what could several thousand students unless their parents can show they have had their shots.

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An Ottawa Public Health official had initially said notices would not go out before late December. But under a schedule presented to the Board of Health in October, the first 2,000 letters were sent out last week, followed by another 3,000 sent Thursday.

That’s left families scrambling if they want to to keep children in school until the Christmas break starts on Dec. 21.

“I feel like I was kind of blindsided with this suspension,” said Caroline Pomeroy, whose nine-year-old daughter Lila and seven-year-old son Jack are named in the notice Pomeroy received by regular mail fromOttawa Public Health.