About Us

Valerie Aprahamian has been advocating for special needs children since 1997.  For the past 15 years, she has attended hundreds of IEP meetings and represented countless families in the Southern California area in the pursuit of an appropriate IEP for their child.

Valerie has a stellar track record in assisting parents in navigating the IEP process and educating parents of their rights by understanding IDEA regulations.

Valerie Aprahamian founded It Consultants, Inc. (Inclusion and Transition Special Education Services) in 2008.  It Consultants, Inc. provided qualified advocates to assist parents in special education disputes and IEP development.  As founder and CEO of It Consultants, Inc., Valerie continued her undeniable success rate in working with school districts in the Orange County and Inland Empire to obtain the appropriate placement, supports, and services for special needs students.

Valerie’s specializes in “inclusion” for the student on an IEP, hence the name, Inclusion and Transition Special Education Services.  Inclusion means that students on IEP’s can receive special education services in the general education classroom or “least restrictive environment” and are not required to be placed in a “special class” in order to receive special education.

In January of 2012, It Consultants, Inc. company name was changed to “Advocates for Angels”.  Valerie continues to train compassionate and knowledgeable advocates and support families with special needs children.  Like It Consultants, Inc., Advocates for Angels mission is to ensure that all students be educated alongside their typical developing peers and strives to hold accountable local school districts to adhere to the rights of students on IEP’s.  Advocates for Angeles believes that special needs students have the right to access standardized grade level curriculum with the appropriate modifications and accommodations and all supports and services available under IDEA.

 Benefits of Inclusive Education

Valerie’s strong belief in inclusion was birthed out of her own story as a mother of a special needs child.  Her daughter, Chanel, was a fully included student for most of her school career.  From the age of 6 years old, Chanel was educated in a general education classroom, even though she was diagnosed with autism and seizure disorder.  Chanel received all special education supports and services that were necessary to meet her specific needs in the general education classroom.  This was quite an accomplishment, considering it was 1996 when the term ‘inclusion” was not familiar with educators or administrators at school sites across the country.

Valerie continued to pioneer her way through the controversy of determining the definition of “appropriate” education in terms of inclusion.  She worked with TASH, TASK, CAN, and spoke at many inclusion conferences during those years in an effort to promote change in our system and equality for our children in education.  While advocating for inclusion as a whole, she strongly continued her pursuit to promote change in her local school district.  During this time of change in the 90’s to the new millennium, Valerie not only represented her own daughter, but also assisted more than 75 families in the Corona Norco Unified School District.

Valerie’s efforts were rewarded in July of 2010 on the day of Chanel’s high school graduation when she received her diploma.  Valerie persevered even after the UCLA developmental team gave her the bleak prognosis of her daughter at 3 ½ years old.  They predicted that Chanel would never talk, read, or write and that her impairments were so severe that she would most likely need to be institutionalized.  The psycho-educational assessments that continued throughout the years, determined a similar outcome but Valerie knew in her heart that they were wrong.  She believed that many special needs children are unable to test accurately by the “standardized model” and that determining a ceiling or prediction of ability was not valid for children who learn differently.

Advocates for Angels continue to develop inclusion programs for children like Chanel.  Advocates for Angels agree to nothing less but high expectations for each student by focusing on the strengths of the child instead of the limitations and deficits.  We assist parents to develop an appropriate IEP, navigate through the IEP process, and educate them on their parental rights and IDEA.  We provide qualified and knowledgeable advocates who are successful in holding school districts accountable to meeting the needs of your special needs child.

If you would like to talk to Valerie to receive more information about Advocates for Angels, please email or call her at (909)841-2600.