Schools as diagnostic funnels

Schools function not just as detection sites but as administrative engines: accommodation rules, special‑education funding, testing pressures, and credential incentives create rational pressures on parents, clinicians, and administrators to seek diagnoses. That dynamic can raise recorded prevalence even absent commensurate increases in underlying impairment. — If schools systematically channel social and educational problems into clinical labels, policy responses must target institutional incentives (funding, accommodations, testing regimes) rather than only expanding treatment capacity.