To me, the most valid of the above mentioned concerns is whether it is actually cost effective to have your child evaluated.  If, in fact, there is a good chance that your child will "outgrow" difficulties, and that waiting to "outgrow" the difficulties will not place undue hardship on the child, or cause them to fall behind in other areas, then "waiting it out" may be very appropriate.  However, there are many problems that children will not simply "outgrow," and assessment with the purpose of identifying what interventions would be most appropriate is warranted.  Contrary to what many parents are told, reading is one of these areas that should not be "waited out."  Research has shown that children who are behind in reading skills at the end of 1st grade will be behind in reading skills at the end of 4th grade, if intervention does not occur.  Likewise, those students behind in reading at the end of 4th grade will still be behind in reading at the end of 8th grade, unless intervention occurs.  What is most frustrating about this is that children actually fall further behind each year...such that the problem becomes more severe with time.  Therefore, when reading is a concern, it is best not to wait, but rather to evaluate what is causing the weaknesses (e.g., dyslexia, visual processing deficits, language processing problems, etc.) in order to identify appropriate interventions.  As for worrying about what schools will do with the information...parents need to be assured that schools can only place a child in programs/classrooms with parental permission.  Schools are required, by law, to provide appropriate educational interventions in the least restrictive environment...and they are often able to keep children in their regular classroom for the vast majority of the educational day.  Schools as a whole do not use labels to "give up" on children; if at any point you feel that a teacher or other school personnel are not meeting your child's needs, there are legal procedures in place to have this corrected.  The worry about peers teasing your child could be valid...but they will probably make even more fun of them if your child does not get help and their academic weaknesses become more and more obvious.  It may also be possible to obtain all academic intervention outside of the school setting...so that peers have no knowledge of the "special help."  Finally...as hard as it may be, parents need to focus on what is best for their child, regardless of what other family members may think.  Grandma never wants to see anything less than perfect in their grand-baby...moms, dads, aunts, and uncles often feel the same way.  But sacrificing the need to understand what is going on with your child for the sake of protecting the feelings of family members is not going to be helpful to your child.