Actually, schools get money for any special ed classification, so mental retardation (or as the psychiatrists now tell us to call it “intellectual disability”) and autism both get them money.
The only place I see a skewing in terms of financial incentives is in the way private insurers like BC/BS treat them: evaluation for intellectual disability is usually not covered, while evaluation for autism is. (The bean-counters think the schools should diagnose mental retardation, but think autism is a “medical” problem, even thought the psychiatrists list both as disorders in the DSM-V.)
Hummm......
About One in Ten California Students Receives Special Education Services. About 686,000 students with disabilities (SWDs) receive special education services in California, comprising about 10 percent of the state’s public school enrollment. Specific learning disabilities—including dyslexia—are the most common diagnoses requiring special education services (affecting about 4 percent of all K–12 students), followed by speech and language impairments. While the overall prevalence of students with autism and chronic health problems still is relatively rare (each affecting 1 percent or less of all public school students), the number of students diagnosed with these disabilities has increased notably over the past decade.
http://www.lao.ca.gov/reports/2013/edu/special-ed-primer/special-ed-primer-010313.aspx
Yes, my second daughter was diagnosed with a "learning disability" in kindergarten. They wanted to take her out of class a few days a week to work with a specialist. My husband hit the roof when I told him. I knew that her being classified so early would follow her throughout her school career. I said no. They argued. I removed her from the public school and put her into a Montessori kindergarten and she did great.
Those running the Montessori school recognized that young children develop at different rates and that includes being advanced in one area and not even at par in another area. She mentioned a boy who was a very bright student; but, he was unable to even pull his pants up after going to the bathroom. They took that in stride, as it was just part of being a kindergartener.
These particular teachers at the public school refused to help kids button their jackets or tied their shoes (these are 5yr olds!). If you asked them, as I did, to make sure that the child put her jacket on when she went outside because it looked to me like she might be catching a cold; I received a letter back from the teacher telling me all the things I was supposed to be doing because they didn't have time to do all of this. About a year or so later, I was speaking to some of my daughters teachers at a Catholic elementary school; and, I mentioned this kindergarten teacher and they were shocked. Their pov was that these were things that you just did as a kindergarten teacher. Tying shoes, helping with jackets, helping with buttoning or zipping jackets. All part of the job. But not to this particular public school teacher. AND, this was the teacher that the parents who knew the staff, wanted for their children. What was the other teacher like?