In the 15 years my son has been in the educational system, the district only concern was that the initial label allow him to receive the services he needed. My major concern was to ensure was the correct placement and that he was receiving the correct amount of services.

My son is not of the age where he is eligible for adult services, but I was able to use the PDD-NOS diagnosis when do guardianship and Social Security. When I have looked for programs and activities my son could/should do, many times I look under cognitively impaired. I have found more programs that fit his needs that way. My goal is to always use the biggest net possible when looking for programs and services. I can them evaluate a program and determine if it is appropriate.

Does it really matter what label they assign to your son? A label is just a means of classifying a disability. What is most important is ensuring that the school system provides the services your son needs. Don't fight the label, rather fight for the services.

You are correct about the one good teacher comment because we have had that happen on multiple times. We have had some great teachers that have given our children everything they need and more. To be honest we have had that happen more then the bad ones, but if you get a bad one you get a bad one and it is hard to get around it because the schools prtect their own.

When it comes to the IEP if the school agrees to give your child a one on one and then the budget changes they are stil required to give the one on one even if they do not want to. We have had that happen before and they wanted to take away the one on one because they did not have the money, but we got an Advocate to make them because they agreed on it and it was in the IEP. I have no problems forcing them to pay for services or give them if the child needs it no matter what the budget.

PPD falls under the UMBRELLA of Autism. My child was diagnosed with "Middle of the Road Autism" initially. My son had language delays. So he can never be labeled with Asperger's due to the language delay. He had "autistic like tendencies" which I saw because I teach autistic students. His diagnosis has changed to PPD. Basically I was told that Autism is a list of symptoms and the child had to meet at least 3 of the 6 criteria to receive a diagnosis.The school should do an evaluation and as a parent of a special needs child you need to fight for it. Get yourself an advocate. Good Luck!

I am sorry to say that in my district we have parents come and had a "script" for "an IEP" or "one-on-one instruction" and it does NOTHING, and shouldn't. The school will do its own evaluation (which any evaluation they do, you can request a private agency also do though this is only for extreme cases the you completely disagree with what the school is saying...the school has to pay for the private evals you request). The schools have to follow their own laws/regulations such as "least restrictive environment", staff ratios, safety of all students, ect. I think it is best to go in with some ideas and solutions and work toward a compromise instead of coming in for attack and demanding. I also know their are some horrible schools and bad teachers, but PLEASE don't lump all schools and especially not all teachers into the same "out to deny" basket. The more you research the more methods you know the better. IF you have accurate information to give them...and yes you can request and have written in IEP training/consultations for the staff (such as staff will be trained by assistive technology staff how to use/impliment X, and/or consultation between teacher, staff and assistive tech (or behavioralist or psychologist) 30 mins a month....But remember one really good teacher may be better then a whole "team" of creditialed "experts"