Chatter and the smell of coffee fills the air as thousands of students pour into Paly, rushing into classrooms to begin the school day.

But throughout Palo Alto — instead of the four concrete walls of the 800s building — some start their days in grand lecture halls at Foothill College, white hospital rooms and the Futures Café.

Sam Lilly, a 2024 Paly grad, spent his junior year at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, where he continued his coursework despite leukemia.

“The whole reason for hospital school is because things are not going particularly smoothly, in the sense that no one wants to be there because they are sick,” Lilly said. “Hospital, school is not something people choose, right? So it’s more like a last resort that people go to.”

Although Lilly couldn’t attend Paly while being treated for leukemia, he was able to work independently and take assessments through the Hospital School system.

While not all PAUSD students who take additional educational pathways share the same experience, they have all found ways to further their education outside of the traditional four-year high school setting.

Newly elected school board trustee Rowena Chiu, whose daughter is a sophomore at Middle College — a partnership between PAUSD and Foothill College that allows students in grades 10-12 to earn a high school diploma and an associate’s degree simultaneously – said Palo Alto students have varied backgrounds and needs.

“There’s a wide diversity of students in the district,” Chiu said. “That doesn’t just mean academically, but also, socially, culturally, economically.”

To support this wide diversity of students, the district has a number of educational pathways available including Middle College, The Hospital School and the Futures special education program.