You should try homeschooling your child. This was one of the best decisions I made, and taught my son for 4 yrs.. The reason I made this decision was due to the fact that the school had treated him as someone who was incapable of learning. I taught him in the comfort of our own home and brought him up to speed. He will now be entering public school for high school, a decision he made, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it'll work out. I can only hope that his school will continue to challenge him.

Unfortunately, schools are reluctant to give an Autism "label" to a student b/c it costs them $$$ to provide the services. Does your son have an IEP written up yet?? If so, I would ask for a meeting to begin addressing his needs for a least resrictive enviro for academic success. You may have to get the formal assessment just to jump through their hoops. I thought a school had to do an assessment if asked... I would think he would already have something in place for the epilepsy? You can also begin looking for advocates to come to your meetings. There are legal gurus who know the laws forward and back and they don't allow school districts to bulldoze what it in your sons best interest. Best of luck, hope you get this shorted out before school starts!

IEP

Getting a public school to recognize Autism is very hard. You might check and see if there are schools for Autism in your area. They of course will charge you. Our school never has recognized our sons Autism. Then again they dont even have an Autism program. But we cannot afford anything better and you cant pay tuition on a special needs child to attend another district. You can make the school accept the diagnosis especially if they have not done their on testing. If he has a formal Diagnosis by a Dr. he is protected by the American Disabilities act. They have to give him an EP

If your child is in a public school they have to test your child or do an evaluation. If the principle will not do anything then you need to go to the director of special ED in your district and if that does not work you need to take it to the superintendent. You may have to threaten them with an attorney , even if you cannot afford one., but do not let them know that. Then from there an advocate would be the most cost effective solution but do not say advocate before attorney to the district.

If your child has an IEP they also have to do an evaluation but if you don't you need one. They are most likely going to ask you to do outside testing just to drag things out, and while this is frustrating just do it because you are ultimately going to use those results against them. Stick to your guns and do not let them intimidate you and always remember if you do not fight for your child no one will.

I can tell you that our family is a success story because of all we have gotten the state and schools to do for us, however it took a lot of time and fighting, but we were relentless and got so much documentation the had no choice but to do the right thing.