In the wake of a high-profile fight over the future of publicly subsidized day care, the Salt Lake County Council sought to soften the blow to families.

As 2025 wound to a close, the council voted to shutter four county-run child care programs by the end of May, saying it was unfair to make taxpayers chip in to help fewer than 300 families. Last week, council members announced expanded access to summer day care programs, lowering the eligible ages from 6 to 5 and setting a price of $141 a week for most programs.

The county had surveyed families who are on the cusp of losing care at one of the county-run facilities and found that 80% of respondents did not have arrangements for summer. The council said the summer program expansion would help fill the need, but parents say many children are still too young to attend.

“The gap in ages still leaves a lot of families out in the dust,” said Jefferson Curtis, a father of two children who currently attend the county-run child care programs. “It just does not take the place of what the county had prior.”

The programs the county is cutting cost families about $460 a month per child for kids ages 2-4, and about $290 a month per child for kids 5-12. That’s about half of what non-county facilities charge, according to a study the county commissioned.

Curtis, speaking for a coalition of families, said the summer program expansion is an insufficient fix to a county-created problem.

Since the closures were announced, council members have directed families to resources to help with the loss of care, but parents say those services are hard to find, have stringent requirements and, in many cases, won’t work for their kids.

“I don’t know of anyone that’s been able to access the resources promised to them,” said Marian Simmons, a mom of two.

Resources available

After the announcement that the county child care centers would close, Simmons quickly turned to the state’s Office of Families. Gov. Spencer Cox created the office in 2022 to “look at upstream policies to strengthen families and improve outcomes for children.”

The Office of Families, Simmons soon found, coordinates with other agencies in an advisory capacity but doesn’t provide services. Its only employee is Aimee Winder Newton, a Republican County Council member who was adamant about closing the day cares.

Winder Newton, now the council chair, did not respond to questions about what some families have described as a lack of resources in the wake of the decision to close the day cares.

The main resource cited by council members to help families transition was the Department of Workforce Services child care subsidy, which provides financial assistance for families who meet certain income thresholds.

The subsidy’s income limits are higher than many other state assistance programs, said Heather Thomas, division director for the Department of Workforce Services’ Office of Child Care. That, she said, means families who may not qualify for programs like SNAP may still be able to receive help with child care.

Thomas encouraged parents to apply for the program even if they think they may not be eligible.

For a family of four, the maximum monthly gross income that would qualify for the subsidy would be $8,335 — equivalent to a gross income of about $100,000 a year. As of October 2025, eligible monthly income limits were set at 85% of the state’s median income, according to the Department of Workforce Services.

Simmons’ household income, however, was too high to qualify when she was still working. The high cost of care is what pushed her to be a stay-at-home mom, since her entire paycheck would have gone toward child care anyway, she said.

Even if someone makes too much for the child care subsidy, Curtis said, it doesn’t mean day care is affordable to them.

“There’s still this perspective that affordable child care is not something that is a problem for anyone in what could be considered the middle class, which is simply not true,” Curtis said.

Parents must work to qualify for the subsidy, according to the Department of Workforce Services. One parent must work an average of at least 15 hours a week and the second parent must work an average of at least 30 hours a week.

West Jordan resident Stephanie Gardner, who has a 3-year-old daughter and a 7-year-old son who attend the county-run day care program at the Kearns Recreation Center, said she also makes too much to qualify.

“My son has already been in four day cares,” Gardner said. “Most of the families that I’ve talked to … we already knew about all these resources that they gave us. We already knew about the state subsidy, and already applied and not qualified… So anything that they provided has not been anything helpful.”

Outside of the subsidy, the state child care office does not offer other opportunities for financial assistance, but other state departments and child care agencies that partner with the state can help parents look for care tailored to their budget or their child’s age.

Still, parents have said, those options are often too expensive or don’t provide the services needed for many families.

Priced out of day care centers

Encarni Gallardo, executive director of the Children’s Service Society of Utah, said she has spoken with several parents affected by the impending closures. She said it will be difficult for families to find similar center-based care at a comparable cost to the county-run programs.

The Children’s Service Society of Utah is one of several agencies that works with the state to connect families with care. Its service area covers families in Tooele and Salt Lake counties.

The only similarly priced solution to the county programs, Gallardo said, will be an in-home family day care.

Family child care is provided by someone from their home to a much smaller group of children, Gallardo said. Care coordinators with the Children’s Service Society only recommend regulated family child care providers, who must go through background checks and health department inspections, she added.

Lower capacity limits for residential providers mean families with more than one child may have to enroll their kids at different locations, Gallardo said. And it’s unclear, she continued, if the capacity in the area will be able to meet the demand of the families who currently use the county-run centers.

“It all depends what child you’re looking for,” Gallardo said. “If your child’s a little older, then it’s easier for a family to find a place. Now, will they find a service at the same price range? No, I can tell you that, and they will have to be willing to drive.”

Curtis’ wife, Jessica Ku, and Gardner are both concerned that home-based options won’t provide transportation like the county centers currently offer, and that in-home providers face fewer regulations than child care centers.

“You have to be willing to trust that person with your child,” Ku said. “There’s a lot more gambling when it comes to in-home day cares.”

Gardner’s daughter also has speech delays and has had motor delays in the past, and she worries an in-home provider would not have the training needed for a child with disabilities.

“[The council] just gives us resources that I feel like we already have, and then it’s like, ‘OK, well, yeah, this is pretty much your option,’” Gardner said. “If people have to do in-home day care, they have to do in-home day care, or if they really don’t feel comfortable with that, then they’re having to quit their job. That seems to be almost what is being pushed.”