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 a behavior plan to address this behavior. Needless to say, she has one now.
I provided the District Attorney's office with the report and with a Physician's Statement that allowed us to remove her from the program legally. I assured the District Attorney, that the student will not be returning to the public school and that we had filed for a hearing and were confident that the student will be attending a private day placement to address her academic, social/emotional disabilities in an environment of her peers.
The District Attorney dropped the charges. The clerk magistrate contacted the parent and advised the only reason the charges were dropped was because she was not going back to the public school.
Many children who are suffering from psychological issues, autism, developmental delay, etc. have behavior disorders. These behaviors can be eliminated or decreased if the student is provided the appropriate services, but in many instances, the school district does not provide for behavior plans until the student has violated the code of conduct by using physical and/or verbal aggression.
Don't be afraid of the label, be afraid that your child is not getting the services. If your child is physical, i.e. hands on, throwing items, or exhibiting self-injurious behaviors, you should be afraid that your child may violently and/or fatally injure another human being and not understand how it happened or why, but just because they may not understand what they had done is not an excuse with respect to the general laws, especially if they understand what they did is wrong, then they could be sent to prison or juvenile hall. So, to me, as an advocate, there is not a danger of labeling a child, but there is a danger if you don't. Protect your child don't worry about the label. Get the services.