Here it's for funding purposes. At the moment my DS gets limited shared TA time because he doesn't have the right tag/label to get designated TA hours. The school is pushing for a spectrum diagnosis (and he does seem spectrumy sometimes) because the funding is much better.
I know in my area it's often difficult to get the schools to acknowledge
any diagnoses or areas that the student needs help because any additional accomodations granted to the student cost the school more money. The accomodations cost more money than the label would provide. In a situation such as marythere's son's, I don't see how providing behavioral support is going to give the school more money. Cost them money, definitely, but how would "needs behavioral support" give the school more funding?
marythere,
While the school may have the ulterior motives you are worrying about -- it's entirely possible -- it is also possible the availability of behavioral intervention is meant to curtail situations like you had with the unhelpful assistant. Behavioral supports can be a positive benefit in a lot of situations that don't imply anything negative about the child. For instance, when you were dealing with a teaching assistant who did not understand your child and was acting in a way that was counter to what he needed, if you had had someone trained in behavioral intervention come in to observe, s/he could have recognized that the assistant was supporting him in a way that forced him into bad behavior, and they could have forced positive change for your son's benefit. Just a thought.
I know there's a stigma to behavioral intervention, but it's not a "bad kid" label.
