How to handle 60+ categories

Summary:

We currently have about 70 categories, including 10 parent categories. This is a long list for employee's to scroll through. Is there a way to either:

1) Show employees only the parent category, and then allow the agent to select the correct child category after the SR has been created and assigned to the correct Queue.

2) Sort the categories by Parent Child. So if I search for the parent category, that and all of the child categories are displayed.

Our current workaround would be to include the Parent category name all child categories, but I dont really like that idea. Also open to other ideas on how you have handled long category lists.