Community-based research can provide an avenue for understanding the complexities of students' and families' lives and working together for educational justice through what we refer to as coalitional literacy practices. In this article, we share a critical incident about a student's absence from school as an illustrative case of the grass-roots coalitional work we saw occurring at our research site. In our analysis, we juxtapose two understandings of the situation: on the one hand, the school's response as an instance of truancy, and the bureaucratic literacies associated with this framing; and on the other hand, how the mother's testimonial speaks to intersectional oppressions that are often invisible to schools. We conclude by spotlighting a current practitioner research project that aims to build off the coalitional energy at the site to investigate family's educational experiences and work toward a shared vision of social justice.