As you know, families on this board have had very mixed experiences with special ed, but I would still suggest that you approach this through special ed, instead of general ed (504). There are better protections for parental due process, and, on the average, decision-makers are more educated consumers of evaluation results. School counselors who are not trained as school psychs typically have only one course in graduate school on assessment (assuming they have degrees in school counseling, and not social work, which quite a number of them do instead), and negligible live experience with assessment and its interpretations. Even if he is not qualified into special ed, quite often the outcome of an initial eligibility meeting will be to discuss the appropriateness of/develop a 504. The first part of the meeting, which determines the presence or absence of a qualifying disability, is the same.
