Ding, Ding, Ding.
We have a winner.
Schools get paid more for kids with a diagnosis.
Several people I know have autistic kids. Schools don’t want the kids or know how to handle them.
ADHD is much easier to diagnose and would be the choice of schools motivated by dollars.
“Schools get paid more for kids with a diagnosis.”
Exactly. The kid gets an IEP and the schools receive money stemming from the I.D.E.A.
As a clinical Psychologist, I have two things to say:
(1) Freepers are some of the smartest, most discerning folks around, especially when it comes to sniffing out BS.
(2) Autism is often diagnosed inappropriately (too early an age, too few symptoms) because it is an easy default (i.e., full diagnostic criteria are often not met) and reimbursable. There are also “autism activists” who put a lot of pressure on physicians and want to find someone to blame for actual cases (e.g., their child’s) autism. Big Pharma is often their target of choice. Very often “autistic” 2-4 year olds just turn out to be developmentally delayed or somewhat odd in their personalities. Remember Albert Einstein did not speak (according to legend) until he was six years old. Guess what he would have been diagnosed with today?
Ding, Ding, Ding.
We have a winner.
Schools get paid more for kids with a diagnosis.”
Local schools get about 6500 for a normal student.
That amount rises to over 28,000 for a child tagged with “problems”.