At the beginning of the shutdown, as we knew so little about the coronavirus, hiring a part-time babysitter felt risky and overwhelming, and we had many anguished conversations over many weeks about whether it was too dangerous to have our parents help us with our non-stop child care needs.

While I had already planned to take unpaid time off from my work as a journalist and entrepreneur following the birth of the twins, it became abundantly clear that my ability to return to work in any significant way would hinge on our ability to get significant amounts of child care for all three kids that we felt was safe ― an extremely complex calculation given all of the nuances of COVID-19.

The study also found that in two-parent straight families where both parents work full time, mothers are now doing 20 hours more per week of care and housework than fathers.

As states start to open back up, I, along with millions of other parents, am anxiously awaiting news about if and when schools and child care centers will fully reopen.

COVID-19 threatens to set women back two generations in the workplace: Nearly two-thirds of college-educated mothers have left their jobs or reduced their work hours since the shutdowns began, and anti-mom bias could increase as employers become less understanding about a lack of child care as the crisis drags on.

In areas where schools are resuming in-person classes, the CareCorps could focus on tutoring and remedial work for kids who are at the highest risk of learning loss and who have faced hardships and instability during the shutdowns.

In areas that need to shut down schools to contain the spread of the virus, the CareCorps could offer pop-up day care for essential workers’ kids.

It could provide home-based care for individual families and for small pods of children where day care centers are struggling to reopen or proctor distance learning in safe settings while parents work.

This program wouldn’t replace child care centers or schools, but it could flexibly fill in the gaps where demand far outstrips supply.

While K-12 public schools are generally not at risk of “going out of business” because they’re paid for by taxes, child care centers are.

CareCorps members would learn important skills that would serve them in any profession, and boasting of the training they got from taking care of children would further legitimize that work