Tester Secures $5.3 Million in American Rescue Plan Funding for Montana Head Start Programs

Funding secured in the American Rescue Plan will support early childhood development, education programs across the Treasure State

U.S. Senator Jon Tester today announced that Head Start programs across Montana will receive a total of $5,302,892 in grant funding to help support in-person, comprehensive services this fall.

“Montana Head Start programs are critical to helping ensure our kids are all on even footing, and that everyone in our state has an equal opportunity to thrive,” said Tester. “These American Rescue Plan funds will go far to make sure Montana kids and their families will have the resources they need to succeed well into the future.”

The American Rescue Plan funding will support Head Start programs across Montana, including:

• $258,248 for the Rocky Mountain Development Council Inc. (Helena)
• $222,549 for Action Inc. (Butte)
• $300,322 for Ravalli Head Start, Inc. (Hamilton)
• $190,244 for the District 4 Human Resource Development Council (Havre)
• $114,864 for Central Montana Head Start (Lewistown)
• $430,740 for Head Start, Inc. (Billings)
• $178,279 for Action for Eastern Montana (Glendive, Malta, Glasgow, Miles City)
• $181,868 for the Human Resource Development Council of District IX, Inc. (Bozeman)
• $114,864 for Kootenai Valley Head Start, Inc. (Libby, Troy)
• $78,969 for the Deer Lodge County Commissioners (Anaconda)
• $253,658 for A.W.A.RE., Inc. (Bozeman, Butte, Helena, Whitehall)
• $380,487 for Child Start, Inc. (Missoula, Bonner, Deer Lodge)
• $38,288 for Young Families Early Head Start Inc. (Billings)
• $57,432 for Families In Partnership, Inc. (Libby)
• $555,176 for Opportunities, Inc. (Great Falls)
• $229,728 for Northwest Montana Head Start, Inc. (Kalispell, Eureka, Columbia Falls)
• $149,563 for Northern Cheyenne Head Start (Lame Deer)
• $319,466 for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (Ronan)
• $253,658 for Fort Peck Assiniboine & Sioux Tribes (Poplar)
• $285,964 for Rock Boy Schools in (Box Elder)
• $224,942 for Fort Belknap Community Council in (Harlem)
• $484,583 for the Blackfeet Tribe of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation (Browning)

This funding was made available by the American Rescue Plan and is distributed through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Senator Tester was the only member of the Montana delegation to vote in favor of the American Rescue Plan.

Montana’s Head Start programs offers preschool and infant care options for parents in need of daycare for their children, information and education resources for young families, and school readiness programing to ensure Montana kids are prepared for kindergarten.

As a former elementary school teacher and school board member, and as a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Tester has been a longtime champion for Head Start programs in Montana. He recently secured more than $3 million for the Ravalli Head Start, more than $4 million for the Head Start programs in Billings and Butte, and more than $2.8 million to support programs in Great Falls, Vaughn, Shelby, and Cut Bank.