Stafford County Public students and staff returned to the classroom Wednesday morning.
Dr. Thomas Taylor, Superintendent with Stafford County Schools, was at Stafford High School to greet staff and students.
Taylor says the entire county has a renewed focus on safety this year.
"Safety is on everybody's mind, whether it's school safety or personal safety," Dr. Taylor said. "We have taken a hard look at some of our safety protocols as well as our student code of conduct."
Coming out of the pandemic, students said they were excited to return to some normalcy with a full return to in-person learning.
Jack Baungartener, a senior at Stafford High School, explained that he's most excited for the football season.
"We just got some new football coaches and we are going to be good, it's going to be so fun to go to" Baungartener said.
Dino Reschke, a teacher, brought a lot of enthusiasm to the first day of school.
"We are so pumped to have this school year, it is going to be great to have the kids back 100% in-person," Reschke said.
The school system had a Transition Day on Tuesday, that allowed kindergarten students, 6th and 9th graders, to start a day early, since they will be going into new school buildings.
Another change will be allowing high school students to have one full hour of lunch. That will help them have more time for school work or extracurricular activities.
While some districts are also struggling to find enough bus drivers, Stafford County Public Schools have enough drivers, according to the superintendent.