Navigating School Choice: How Chinese Parents of Primary School Children Respond to District Housing Policies and Online Information in Northern Virginia

District housing policies and information networks are major factors in school choice in the United States. This article unpacks the interaction between the two in the context of Chinese families making mobility decisions for their primary school–age children. Using data from twenty semi-structured interviews with Chinese families and qualitative content analysis of WeChat groups and online forums in Northern Virginia and theorizing with Bourdieu’s capital, Coleman’s social capital, and policy feedback, the analysis illustrates the role of district housing policies in limiting school access in practice and online Chinese parent communities’ parallel infrastructure for information and social capital. The article reveals that families with more developed digital literacy and denser social capital are more successful at translating information to policy reading and school choice, and some others are constrained by district housing and information access. The article, by bringing housing policy and digital social capital to the study of school choice, contributes to both comparative education and cultural sociology.