BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - Louisiana is receiving a nearly $8 million grant to improve early childhood education.

  

Most of the preschool development grant is coming from the federal government. The Advocate reports $800,000 will be paid by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

  

The money has to be spent by December and cannot be used to finance new slots in education programs for children from birth to age 4.

  

Instead, the education department says the grant money will help local communities set up early childhood education sites, aid families who do early childhood education at home and finance professional development for early childhood teachers.

  

The money also will help the state launch a program aimed at helping child care sites share resources, including substitute teachers.

  

Louisiana is one of 13 states awarded grants.