In this paper, we make partial progress on a function field version of the dynamical uniform boundedness conjecture for certain one-dimensional families
${\mathcal{F}}$ of polynomial maps, such as the family
$f_{c}(x)=x^{m}+c$, where
$m\geq 2$. We do this by making use of the dynatomic modular curves
$Y_{1}(n)$ (respectively
$Y_{0}(n)$) which parametrize maps
$f$ in
${\mathcal{F}}$ together with a point (respectively orbit) of period
$n$ for
$f$. The key point in our strategy is to study the set of primes
$p$ for which the reduction of
$Y_{1}(n)$ modulo
$p$ fails to be smooth or irreducible. Morton gave an algorithm to construct, for each
$n$, a discriminant
$D_{n}$ whose list of prime factors contains all the primes of bad reduction for
$Y_{1}(n)$. In this paper, we refine and strengthen Morton’s results. Specifically, we exhibit two criteria on a prime
$p$ dividing
$D_{n}$: one guarantees that
$p$ is in fact a prime of bad reduction for
$Y_{1}(n)$, yet this same criterion implies that
$Y_{0}(n)$ is geometrically irreducible. The other guarantees that the reduction of
$Y_{1}(n)$ modulo
$p$ is actually smooth. As an application of the second criterion, we extend results of Morton, Flynn, Poonen, Schaefer, and Stoll by giving new examples of good reduction of
$Y_{1}(n)$ for several primes dividing
$D_{n}$ when
$n=7,8,11$, and
$f_{c}(x)=x^{2}+c$. The proofs involve a blend of arithmetic and complex dynamics, reduction theory for curves, ramification theory, and the combinatorics of the Mandelbrot set.