“School or juvenile hall?” Uzo Aduba asks in the trailer for “Miss Virginia. “You have got to choose.” Her character, Virginia Walden, is talking to her son (Niles Fitch, “This Is Us”), a smart kid stuck in an underfunded school, where he keeps crossing paths with drug dealers. Her solution is to completely remove him from the situation, and place him in a private school. When she’s rejected for the loan that would pay the tuition, Virginia embarks on another tactic: reforming Washington, D.C.’s education system.

When she proposes bringing a program that sends low-income students to private schools to D.C., a jaded congressman (Matthew Modine) tells her she has “a better chance of winning the lottery.” This just motivates her more: she enlists the support of other local parents and a popular talkshow host (Vanessa Williams). Soon, Virginia’s quest to give her son a good education becomes a full-fledged movement.

“You are going to do right by the thousands of kids in Washington, D.C.,” she says, addressing Congress. “You cannot, you will not, deny our children their right to learn.”

“Miss Virginia” is based on a true story. Erin O’Connor (“We the Internet”) penned the script.

Aduba has won two Emmys for her turn as Suzanne “Crazy Eyes” Warren on “Orange Is the New Black.” The Netflix prison dramedy concluded earlier this summer after seven seasons. Aduba also nabbed two SAG Awards for the role. You can catch her next as Shirley Chisholm in “Mrs. America,” the upcoming FX miniseries about anti-ERA activist Phyllis Schlafly. Her other credits include “Steven Universe” and “Tallulah.”

“Miss Virginia” will be released in theaters and on VOD October 18.