by Tami Joia

Created on: July 01, 2007

If your child has a disability such as Autism, ADHD, Bipolar, etc, and he/she is not diagnosed, the definite danger is you will not receive the necessary services and/or supports in the public school system or anywhere else in the state.

Unfortunately, in the United States in order to receive services you have to have a label. Unless of course your are independently wealthy, then it doesn't matter. If not, then the label is very important and not to stigmatized your child, but to determine the most appropriate manner, technique, strategy, and tools that will be needed in order for your child to make effective progress in all domains in general.

All children with special needs do not receive the same services. All children with special needs do not automatically suffer from the same issues that are or may be impacting their education, social/emotional, communication, daily living skills, etc.

The manner in which you receive the label is through evaluations by a medical or psychiatric diagnosis. This makes it official and schools cannot ignore the diagnosis. Furthermore, the diagnosis or label will demonstrate which state agency the child would be able to receive services from, such as The Dept. of Mental Retardation. They have an eligibility requirement regarding the I.Q. If the doctor, the pediatrician, a psychiatrist, a doctor with a medical degree who is licensed, can state that your child has an I.Q. of a 56, your child can receive services from this department.

The problem that I believe many parents are afraid of is that this label is in your child's medical records. It will forever be written that your child is autistic, mentally retarded, or suffers from bipolar or whatever the case may be.

But, and this is a very big but, this will also protect your child in the event an incident occurs such as; hitting a teacher or any type of violent behavior. True story, a 15 year old girl who is developmentally delayed, with bipolar, who had been in this particular school district since she started kindergarten, punched her teacher in the mouth twice. She hit her so hard, she chipped a tooth. The school pressed charges against my client. Fortunately, an evaluation had just been completed in which it explained that she does not understand why she will hit someone, however she is remorseful, but does not understand her actions. This school district was well aware of her out of control behaviors for years and never provided her with an appropriate education plan to include

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