At about 10 minutes after 9 a.m., the sunny classroom is still empty of students.
"Sometimes they get here a little late," said teacher Cindy Britain as she walked through the colorful classroom. "They'll get here."
The school hours can be slightly irregular because there is nothing regular about the school itself.
The students, Britain said, are probably late because they've spent a long night at the hospital.
The one-room school is inside Minneapolis' Ronald McDonald House, a refuge for out-of-town families that have a child being treated at the University of Minnesota's Amplatz Children's Hospital or Children's Hospitals of Minnesota.
The school is charged with tailoring practical school lessons for children of all ages who are at risk for academic delay due to illness or the impact of pediatric illness on the rest of the family. Some of those students are patients, but many are siblings of patients who are too sick to enroll.
When a child comes to the school, Britain contacts the student's home school and works to conform lessons to concepts from that curriculum.
"Our goal is not to have these kids graduate from the Ronald McDonald House school, but to transition them back into their schools at home," said Britain, who is accredited through the Minneapolis Public Schools system and has been with the school since it opened 12 years ago.