Summit County parents searching for help paying for childcare now have a single bilingual guide that pulls together every local, state and nonprofit assistance program in one place.

Kristen Schulz, director of the Early Childhood Alliance, compiled the resource and published it Wednesday, Sept. 16, on the Park City Community Foundation's website. The guide is available in English and Spanish.

The document covers state and county assistance programs alongside scholarships offered by local nonprofits. It is aimed at families just starting their search and those trying to figure out whether they qualify for more than one program.

The Early Childhood Alliance, an initiative of the Park City Community Foundation, has been at the center of local childcare affordability efforts. Its Needs-Based Child Care Scholarship Program served 162 families and 186 children through 32 local providers in its second year, a 30 percent increase over year one, according to the Park City Community Foundation. The foundation reported $4.25 in economic value returned for every dollar invested in the program. The alliance absorbs all administrative costs for the scholarship, so 100 percent of public funds go directly to families and providers.

Summit County Council Chair Canice Harte called the county's childcare investment "an investment in our community as a whole" in a June 29 Park City Community Foundation post about the scholarship program.

The guide arrives as Utah plans to cut roughly $21 million from its childcare subsidy program because of reduced federal Child Care Development Fund (CCDF) allocations, according to an Aug. 21 op-ed Schulz published in the Utah News Dispatch. The state program serves only about 15 percent of eligible children. Schulz also noted that Utah spends approximately $1,985 per year per child before kindergarten, compared with $17,592 per child for ages 5 through 18.

"Nothing magical happens when a child turns 5 that makes them worthy of public investment in their care and education," Schulz wrote in the op-ed.

Both versions of the guide are available at parkcitycf.org under the Early Childhood Alliance page.