mscat40

You can always have your child seen by a child Neuro, a child Psycholigist, Or any other professional that can make diagnoses, and do the right testing. The school district has it's own testing, however, going to a outside source would benefit your child moreso then a school psycholigist.
Reason for a accurate diagnoses is to get your child into the right program, not nessessairly to benifit the school. Special needs children require trained teachers , OT, Speech therapy , and any other services that will be available for him.
If he is diagnosed as having Asperger's then he still will need support for social skills training. High Functioning autism is not Aspergers. Sometimes can be confused with it though.
my son is considered High Functioning, even though he has low IQ scores > That is the main difference in Aspergers they are usually average intelligence to very highly intelligent. And do not have any language delays when learning to talk.
HFA children have the language delays, are verbal, but they tend to hperfocus on their own interests , in usually engage in one way conversation.
Schools do not get any kickbacks , or more funding , in fact the money to teach special needs kids is greater , because the teachers have specialized training.
As far as not trusting the way ASD is diagnosed because it is mainly behavior idicaters , that is why you ought to seek out a trained professional in ASD's. Their are tests that are performed that can point to autism, only a skilled , trained professional knows how to perform those tests.
My son was first diagnosed at age 4, two years ago he went to a neuropsycholgist and the diagnoses was confirmed at the age of 15.