"There's certainly going to be children that are scared,” Thalia Andernen, a counselor with The Center of Hope, a non-profit family support center, told NBC New York.
“They're going to be frightened and feel very insecure about going back, but a lot of them are going to be resilient.”
David Connors, 40, who has 8-year-old triplets, said he knows that sending his kids back to school will be difficult – but crucial.
“The past three weeks have been just crazy,” he told NBC Connecticut. “Getting back to that sense of figuring out what the new normal is going to look like, I think, is important. Everyone is waiting for that to happen.”
His children, he said, are ready for the transition.
“They want to see their teacher. They want to see their classes. They want to get back into a routine,” he said.
The children have not been in school since the Dec. 14 rampage. Workers spent the holiday break readying the former middle school seven miles from Newtown for their return.
"The healing process for these kids is the most critical thing, and being together with familiar faces. I know that Newtown is taking great strides so that happens when they get over here," Monroe School Superintendent Jim Agostine said.
While grief counselors and extra security will be on hand at the Monroe building, Newtown School Superintendent Janet Robinson said the first day back will be as ordinary as possible.
The focus will be on learning, and the school will wait some time to honor teachers for their bravery during Lanza’s killing spree, which was largely confined to two first-grade classrooms.
"Everyone was part and parcel of getting as many kids out of there safely as they could," Robinson told the Associated Press. "Almost everybody did something to save kids.”
Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy stands with other officials to observe a moment of silence while bells ring 26 times in Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 21, in honor of the victims who were killed last Friday during the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
