A first step towards normalcy and a first step towards healing. That's what parents of Sandy Hook Elementary School are hoping for today as they drop their kids off at school for the first time since an unimaginable tragedy.

Many things will be different for these kids. They won't be attending Sandy Hook Elementary, which police say remains part of an ongoing investigation into Adam Lanza, the gunman who also killed his mother before opening fire at the school and killing 20 children and six adults.

Instead the children are expected to travel to Chalk Hill Middle School in the nearby town of Monroe, where a green-and-white banner greeting the children hangs on a fence. There will also be other familiar items to welcome the kids: furniture and rugs like the ones in their old school. And then there are the security changes: more cameras and locks.

All of those are steps officials across the state of Connecticut have helped make happen in hopes of making school a welcoming place for these children again.