SALT LAKE CITY — This month, close to 700,000 students and 30,000 teachers will head back to classrooms across Utah.

The class of 2020 thought they had a weird finish to their schooling, and the class of 2021 had a full year of combined in-person and distance learning.

What does the class of 2022 have to look forward to?

“Teachers learned different ways to leverage technology so that when students were in and out of the classroom, teachers are in and out of the classroom, hopefully, as a whole group, we won’t have to shift out of the classroom,” said Tracy Weeks with Salt Lake City-based Instructure, the parent company of Canvas.

That is the hope, right?

Weeks said this year will be the best yet, despite almost certain disruptions as the COVID-19 pandemic drags on.

At the beginning of March 2020, Forbes reported close to six in 10 educators had no remote teaching experience. Now, out of necessity, they’re ready to go.

“Teachers are creative and teachers are resilient,” Weeks said. “And they are constantly growing and learning, just like the students in their classrooms are.”

So what lessons have school districts learned?

The Utah State Board of Education utilized more than $600 million of COVID-19 relief funding to figure out engagement, emotional needs, mental health and literacy.

It’s an ongoing process to find out where to target resources and this 2021-22 school year will be the proving ground for new policies.

Washington County is the first district back to school this fall semester and they start on Thursday, Aug.12.