This panel features variations on a central theme: empowering musicians and music educators to engage with policy. Guided by Stone's (2001) insight that policy creates boundaries of inclusion and exclusion, we consider how policy manifests and shapes practice across diverse music education contexts. Our studies reveal points of convergence-policy as both constraint and possibility-and points of divergence-how educators respond differently to these tensions. They reinforce the perspective that policy is a dynamic, lived, and negotiated process (Ball, 1990; Schmidt, 2020), and underscore the notion that a productive policy mindset for music educators is not grounded in a notion of top-down policy authority, but rather as an ongoing navigation of tensions that takes full advantage of the agency music educators possess (Aguilar & Richerme, 2020; Shaw, 2020). The session will conclude with discussion between panelists and audience, inviting participants to imagine new ways of thinking about and engaging with policy.Panelist 1: Educational policy often prioritizes standardization, overlooking the diverse needs of rural communities. This presentation challenges that model by examining rural music educators as grassroots policy actors who create localized, place-based policies mediating tensions between state accountability and the need for context-responsive education (Corbett, 2006). By reimagining their roles to serve the unique cultural landscape of their specific location, they exemplify Schmidt’s (2020) ”return of the teacher” asserting decentralized authority and localism as a form of professional agency. This presentation argues that a policy model that recognizes and supports teacher-led, context-specific action as vital for educational relevance in diverse places. Panelist 2: What if policy were seen as a tool for leading change in music education rather than mere paperwork or rigid rules? Too often, leadership and policies are treated as fixed, leaving little room for creativity or risk, especially when pursuing equitable actions and diverse leadership. This presentation will discuss the concept of policy entrepreneurship, showing how leaders can think strategically, build networks, and advocate for change (Schmidt, 2020). Policy entrepreneurship will be examined through the lens of Black women musicians, highlighting how they engage in politics, create policies, and apply creative expertise to transform music education in diverse contexts.Panelist 3: Actors in higher education operate within organized anarchical spaces (Cohen and March, 1972) serving broader hybrid organizational needs (Pratt and Foreman, 2000) while working within individual and departmental silos. Collegiate athletic bands are positioned at the intersection of these multiple, often conflicting institutional missions, roles, and functions, and what follows is complex policy work across diverse stakeholders and interests. This segment of the panel foregrounds a mixed-method interrogation of the tertiary marching arts, placing the college marching band as a microcosm of the modern American university: navigating the paradox of educational and commercial aims, the court of public opinion, and the twenty-first century arms race of college sports. Panelist 4: Arts-based social prescribing (ABSP)—the practice of connecting people to local arts and culture activities to support their non-clinical health and wellbeing needs (Golden et al., 2023)—offers community musicians an opportunity to engage in public health work. However, as this interprofessional policy arena takes shape, their perspectives remain underrepresented. This presentation explores what we hear when their voices are amplified, asking: within ABSP, are community musicians essential workers, influencing policy on the ground as street-level bureaucrats (Lipsky, 2010)? Or, are they being essentialized as policy subjects or objects (Ball, 2015), valued for their labor while marginalized in decision-making?Panelist 5: How does a musician approach and navigate a space occupied by transient stakeholders who operate within a calcified system often guided by tacit and tribal knowledge? These are the obstacles faced by many Broadway musicians and music directors. This presentation will examine a Freirean dialogical approach utilizing the ideas of grassroots policies (Schmidt, 2020) or street-level bureaucracy (Lipsky, 1980). We will discuss the conditions faced by Broadway substitute musicians and how Music Directors can operate as change agents (Abril and Gault, 2020) and implement grassroots institutional shifts by advocating for all musicians within a highly entrenched and commercialized industry.Chair: The work of Deleuze and Guattari can serve as a way to frame the manifestation of policy in trans and gender-expansive choral spaces. Following their “philosophy of becoming” (1987), this presentation examines the ways in which TGX choirs de/reterritorialize choral policy practice. By examining TGX choral policy via the Deleuzoguattarian concept of stratification, I explore the double articulations, the relationship of content and expression, in TGX choral policy. This further grounds these policies as sites of de/reterritorialization and de/coding and provides a lens through which practitioners might re-examine their conceptualization of policy and its stability.The format of this panel will include remarks from the Chair (10 mins). Following, panelists will share their presentations (6 x 10 mins). We will then open the floor to discussion between panelists and the audience (20 mins).