In the small towns of Harlem, Hays and Lodge Pole along the Hi-Line in north-central Montana, roughly 125 infants, toddlers and young kids regularly spend their days at child care centers run by Head Start, the decades-old federal early childhood initiative.

But those Fort Belknap Head Start services will be scrambling for funding as of Nov. 1 as a result of the ongoing shutdown of the federal government , according to its staff. The program is one of 22 Head Start hubs around the state, but the only one with a grant-funded contract up for renewal on Oct. 30.

Julia Doney is the director of the Fort Belknap Head Start programs. She has worked for the organization since 1974, first as a volunteer when her own daughter was enrolled. She said in a Wednesday interview that the Fort Belknap

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