“As a crisis management expert, we tend to view ‘critical infrastructure’ as those aspects of society that are essential functions for life and livelihood: transportation, water, food, electricity, supply chain. This pandemic has taught us about one more: child care is also critical. Working parents cannot go back to work, cannot re-engage in our economy, if kids are home. There is no simple answer, but it must be at the front of our discourse.”

— Juliette Kayyem, Senior Belfer Lecturer in International Security at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and the former Assistant Secretary for Intergovernmental Affairs at the Department of Homeland Security for President Obama, in a May 14, 2020, email to Strategies for Children