Democratic systems cannot operate without citizens’ rights, which are neither automatic nor uniform.  What does it take – in terms of resources, organizations, politics, expertise, and more – to turn formal rights into lived realities? How do barriers to rights manifest at different phases of the policy process, across populations, and geographic spaces?  What can we do to dismantle barriers and build supports to realize rights?  The first phase of the Realizing Rights Lab takes up these puzzles in the context of disability rights in U.S. elementary and secondary education.