Two months before four county-run day cares will close their doors, the Salt Lake County Council announced a new option for families needing care this summer.

That option, presented during Tuesday’s County Council meeting, will expand access to existing summer day care programs. In most cases, it will cost $141 a week — a price council member Jiro Johnson said is far lower than that of private providers. In some cases, the programs are free.

The expansion will come at no additional cost to the county, said Lauren Brady, Salt Lake County’s associate director of community engagement. Instead, tuition payments will cover the programming.

Here is where the county will upgrade its “summer camp” programs:

• Redwood Recreation Center in West Valley City and Copperview Recreation Center in Midvale.

These facilities will offer child care for eight hours a day, five days a week throughout the summer. The minimum age to attend will be lowered from 6 to 5. Children as old as 12 may attend.

• Sandy’s Dimple Dell Fitness & Recreation Center, Holladay Lions Recreation Center, Herriman’s J.L. Sorenson Recreation Center, West Jordan’s Gene Fullmer Recreation Center, South Jordan’s Fitness & Recreation Center, and Taylorsville’s Fitness & Recreation Center.

These facilities will offer child care eight hours a day, five days a week for six weeks with staggered start dates, so families can receive six weeks of care at one center and six weeks at another.

The minimum age of kids who can attend will be lowered from 6 to 5. The program is available for kids up to 12 years old.

Here is where the county will offer day care through its Youth Services division:

• South Kearns Elementary, West Kearns Elementary, Pleasant Green Elementary, Magna Elementary, Dos Mundos Academy and Copper Hills Elementary.

These locations will offer child care four days a week, six hours a day for five to six weeks.

These programs are open to kids who are in kindergarten through 6th grade. Because they are operated by Salt Lake County Youth Services, they have no required tuition.

Parents will be able to register for the summer camp programs on the county’s website as soon as mid-April. Youth Services day care registration varies depending on the program.

The County Council voted late last year to end the county’s year-round day care programs.

A survey of about half the families who currently use the programs found that 80% of them don’t have care arranged for the summer. That’s where the expanded summer programming could be helpful, council Chair Aimee Winder Newton said.

“The County Council unanimously supports utilizing rec centers to provide child care space with no cost to property taxpayers,” Winder Newton said. “Whether it’s leasing space to nonprofit providers or creating summer programming with reasonable tuition, we’ve found ways we can support working families.”

Kids under 5 can’t attend the summer programs, but the county’s Parks and Recreation Department is working with community partners to connect those families with alternative providers, Brady, the community engagement administrator, said.

The council — and its child care task force — is also eyeing future opportunities for the four facilities that will no longer operate county-run day care services, Associate Deputy Mayor Katherine Fife said during the meeting.

“I know that to the families who are losing their day care options that this is not an entire solution,” Johnson, the County Council member, said. “... There’s a strong need for summer child care programming for a lot of people throughout this county. And this is a very strong step in providing that service.”