Advocacy for Exceptional Individuals
What We Do
Special Education Consulting and Advocacy
Christina draws from over 13 years’ experience advocating for students with disabilities in the school setting. She appreciates that emotions can run high when a parent learns that their child is struggling academically, emotionally or socially. Parents can, understandably, become frustrated, worried, stressed and exhausted.
As an objective and experienced advocate, Christina helps parents develop strategies and tactics to help protect their child’s rights and garner the supports and services that they need to make meaningful progress in the school setting. In particular, she is adept at strategizing within the context of the law so that parents can set themselves up for better outcomes should they need to proceed to due process.
In addition to advising and advocating for students, Christina coaches parents so that they can move from emotions to advocacy themselves, helping them to feel more hopeful and less stressed.
Person Centered Planning
Clients of Regional Centers now have the option to move into the Self Determination Program (“SDP”). SDP allows clients to have more control and choice over the services that they receive as a Regional Center client. This opens up a world of possibilities and can be life changing for Regional Center clients.
At the heart of Self Determination is the Person Centered Plan (“PCP”). This plan puts the client at the center of the planning process for Regional Center services by focusing on the client’s hopes, dreams, strengths and needs. Christina shepherds clients through the PCP process, involving the client and their circle of support, which may include family members, friends and other community members who know the client well and are important in their lives. The PCP forms the basis for the Individual Program Plan, which every Regional Center client must have and is directly related to the services that they receive in their Detailed Spending Plan.
Independent Facilitation for Self-Determination Program
Transitioning into the Self-Determination Program involves creating a Person Centered Plan, developing a budget, allocating the budget across a Detailed Spending Plan, contracting with a Financial Management Service, and identifying and possibly hiring service providers and supports. After the transition is complete, there is the ongoing responsibility to ensure the Spending Plan is properly executed, spending is tracked, revised spending plans are submitted, as needed, services and supports are purchased and the client’s needs are being met.
Christina is available to support clients with these ongoing responsibilities.
Who We Are
Areté was founded on three core principles: Fulfillment. Excellence. Individuality.
Fulfillment
The ancient Greek used the term areté to mean excellence of any kind, especially a person fulfilling their highest potential. At Areté, we strive to help exceptional individuals achieve their hopes and dreams by educating, strategizing, and guiding them through the process of identifying and obtaining the supports and services they uniquely need to realize their best self.
Excellence
For too long, expectations for exceptional individuals in schools and the community have been too low. At Areté, we believe in the competency and potential of each individual. We aim high, meeting each child where they are and advocating for the appropriate scaffolds to help them grow. To borrow Temple Grandin’s philosophy, exceptional individuals are, “Different...Not Less!”
Individuality
To achieve their fullest potential in school and in the community, exceptional individuals must be supported with services that are congruent with their unique and individual needs. No longer should we accept a generic menu of services that is offered to a vastly diverse group of individuals. Areté invests the time to understand each client individually and collaborates with them to design a plan centered on their unique goals and needs. We then advocate for what is in the client’s best interests, rather than settling for services that are inconsistent with their true needs.
Meet The Founder
Christina Aragon
Christina began her journey in disability rights advocacy in 2008. It began very personally when she had to navigate the inscrutable and often unjust special education system for her own family. Christina had a lot of experience interpreting and applying laws outside of special education and adeptly transferred those skills to learning the laws applicable to schools and regional centers in California. As her knowledge and experience grew, she became a resource for other families. With the opening up of the Self Determination Program to every Regional Center client in 2021, Christina expanded her knowledge and services to include supporting families through the transition to SDP and beyond.
Christina has a Masters in Business Administration from Harvard Business School, a Bachelor of Arts from UCLA in Psychology, and continues to grow every day in her knowledge of the evolving landscape of disability rights, laws, practices and opportunities.