Unlesssss.... they HAVE such a person on-staff. And while it is technically true that schools can't force medication, they can (and DO) pressure parents to do so or hit the road, so to speak, by stonewalling with ANY other services until parents comply.
If it is a public school, I doubt that they have medical professionals on staff. Yes, they do have school psychologists and school nurses, but they cannot make a medical diagnosis.
Yes, stonewalling is definitely done. But I also think parents do have other choices -- afterschool at home (if the kid wants it), or do enrichment activities outside of school etc. Schools generally prefer bright children, who comply with doing worksheets, as opposed to truly gifted children, who think out of the box and who have (for example) mastered multiplication in K. A lot of times, schools have no clue as to what to do with kids who are outliers. If the kid is an outlier and has behavioral issues (disrupting the class etc), one expects stonewalling. What stood out, to me, was that the school/teacher recommended gifted testing. The person can choose to do it privately (provided the school accepts outside results, so best to check), so there is no question of any bias. I would start with that.
For statements like "this kid has the social skills of a 5 year old", or "reacting to jokes made in a totally innocent manner", I would just say something like "We'll work on it" and move along. The school will always test enough to see if the parent blinks first and says "OK, we will get him tested" etc, but I think if you stand your ground, and continue advocating (ABQMom said in some other thread that she has fought for services as though her son has a label even though he does not have a label), it may work. For us, personally, proving with work samples, again & again, that my child knows the material, proving that the teacher had a bias by looking carefully at worksheets that came back from school etc, helped the school look at it a little differently. Do they now think that my child no longer has ADHD ? No, of course not. But they are also extremely careful -- because they know I will ask for a lot of detail in a very polite manner. So, in a way, wear them down as well, so they provide whatever support is needed to make the child succeed.
