See Photos Inside the Beautiful New Sandy Hook Elementary School

Four years after the devastating massacre that took the lives of 20 children and six adults, the new Sandy Hook Elementary School has opened its doors.

The new campus, which was constructed to replace the previous building that was demolished following the December 2012 attack, was built in honor of the victims but without a designated memorial for those lives lost. Instead, the 86,000-square-foot school features a quiet area designed to look like a tree house, three courtyards, a mosaic with the words "be kind," and a moat-like rain garden.

"Our goal was to create a place of community and learning, a place that would honor those we lost and allow those who were left behind the chance to move forward," First Selectman Patricia Llodra said in a statement, according to the Hartford Courant.

The $50 million replacement building was constructed with the safety of the new students in mind. According to the Associated Press, the new school has bulletproof windows and doors, an elevated ground floor to make seeing inside the classrooms harder, and a video monitoring system.

All that is left of the original school, which was torn down a year after the attack, is the footprint of the old building. The new structure sits farther back on the property and the remaining concrete slabs — complete with their original dinosaur footprints — are in the new parking lot.

The school opened to the media and community members a month before students head back to school in the hopes of making the move easier for everyone involved. Of the 390 children enrolled for the upcoming year, 70 incoming fourth graders were students at the old school at the time of the shooting.

"The transition to the new school needs to be as seamless as possible for the children," Superintendent Joseph Erardi said in a statement, according to the Courant. "That is why we are setting up this day; and therefore, asking everyone to give us the space we need to allow high quality teaching and learning when we return for our first day of school."