Effective Allies in Special Education Don’t Just Offer Support — They Change Systems
This is our first post in the MiPAAC: Reimagining Special Education Series
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November 24, 2025
In school systems, we often talk about “supporting families,” “helping students,” and “advocating where we can.” These are noble intentions — and absolutely necessary. But as the disability community knows too well:
Good intentions alone don’t repair systems that were never designed with disabled students in mind.
A recent MIT Sloan Management Review article on allyship in the workplace distinguishes between two types of allyship:
Signaling — offering encouragement, affirmation, or public support. Mitigation — removing barriers, changing policies, and addressing the structures that create inequity in the first place.
Both matter. Signals of belonging and safety can offer comfort in the moment. However, if students and families continue experiencing the same barriers year after year, those signals eventually ring hollow.
This offers a lesson that applies directly to special education advocacy:
Effective allies don’t only respond to symptoms of inequity — they work to eliminate the root causes.
In Michigan, families encounter structural barriers — inequitable funding, gaps in access to evidence-based instruction, inconsistent implementation of IDEA, opaque data systems, and processes that strain relationships rather than build trust.
These aren’t isolated challenges.
They are the predictable outcomes of system design.
That’s why MiPAAC, powered by the Autism Alliance of Michigan (AAoM), is focused on solutions that move beyond individual advocacy and toward system transformation. This includes:
Funding redesign that aligns resources with actual student needs. Transparent, actionable data that illuminates inequities — and holds systems accountable for improving them. Authentic family partnership, embedded not as a checkbox, but as a driver of policy, practice, and decision-making. Meaningful accountability structures aligned with the purpose of IDEA: improving outcomes, not just completing paperwork. Coalition-building that unites families, educators, attorneys, and advocates to push for statewide change.Because real allyship in special education doesn’t stop at helping families navigate the system — it transforms the system to navigation isn’t a barrier in the first place.
As IDEA celebrates its 50th anniversary, the work ahead is clear:
Honor the law by fulfilling its promise.
MiPAAC is committed to advancing the systems-level reforms Michigan’s students with disabilities deserve — and we invite partners across the state to join us in creating a future where outcomes are no longer determined by ZIP code, resources, or a family’s capacity to fight.