Remember: Autists have to learn and cope with this new social situation first before they have the strength to progress intellectually. But even when the kid is normalizing, careful not to overwhelm them again, because they might use up all their energy for the school day and just break down at home.
School is a horrible place if there's the same treatment and the same expectations on every kid.
Who says this mitigation has to be a punishment? I am also skeptical concerning punishments for neurotypicals in similar situations.
We don't begrudge wheelchair bound students ramps to access rooms. We shouldn't deny children with "${diagnosis}" driven behavior alternatives to punishment when it's appropriate.
Edit: For what it's worth, I also think punishment is too often a first-resort by schools for all children. This is a complex issue driven in part by the horrific way we under-fund schools. Many of these problems would be much less significant if we funded schools well enough to provide the support they should (and are legally required to).
Having the right diagnosis is important. Who wants to end up taking powerful medicines for the wrong condition?? Sure, if you have no diagnosis then you won't take the wrong meds either, but that's not a reason to avoid a diagnosis.
That's an interesting and problematic aspect.
My wife is a teacher and has started to encounter that attitude more frequently. "He gets angry because he is ${diagnosis}, you can't punish him for it". But when it disrupts the class, and encourages others to behave similarly, then some response is needed to mitigate the situation. There is a responsibility to the class as well as the individual.
Defining that response is the problem. In one example from a local school the child was given shorter school hours as an incentive towards controlling their behaviour. Which is exactly the opposite of what 'normals' receive, detention for disruptive behaviour.