MINNEAPOLIS — The University of Minnesota Masonic Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis is getting a $2.5 million grant that will help expand its program for abused children.

The donation from the Otto Bremer Trust was announced Monday. The St. Paul-based organization said the money will fund additional staff, increased community education and a fellowship program.

Dr. Nancy Harper, medical director of the newly renamed Otto Bremer Trust Center for Safe and Healthy Children, says the new fellowship should lead to more child-abuse specialists in Minnesota. University pediatrics department chairman Dr. Joseph Neglia says there’s a shortage of such specialists nationwide.

The funding will also support training for staff and help launch a new “no hit zone” policy forbidding any kind of physical discipline in the hospital.