NASHVILLE (AP) — Vanderbilt University is getting a $1.25 million grant to research the needs of some of Tennessee's most vulnerable children.

According to the school, the Policies for Action Research Hub at Vanderbilt will develop recommendations for helping the children of immigrant families and children with prenatal exposure to opioids.

Melinda Buntin is chair of the Department of Health Policy at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and one of two principal investigators leading the hub. She said the choice of research topics was driven by some troubling statistics.

In Tennessee, 36 percent of children with immigrant parents live in poverty. And the number of children born with neonatal abstinence syndrome, from prenatal drug exposure, increased 25 fold between 2001 and 2014.

The research grant is from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.