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A bill recently filed in the House of Representatives would mandate cursive writing instruction for some elementary school students in Florida.
State Rep. Toby Overdorf, R-Palm City, filed House Bill 127 on Wednesday, which calls for state public schools to provide cursive writing instruction for students in grades second through fifth.
The bill further states that “By the end of grade 5, each student must demonstrate proficiency in cursive writing through an evaluation of written work.”
The term “demonstrate proficiency in cursive writing”, according to the bill, means students should have the capability to write both uppercase and lowercase letters in cursive, write words and sentences in cursive “legibly” while “maintaining proper spacing and alignment, and write essays and assignments in cursive writing, compliant with state academic standards.
Overdorf filed a similar bill – HB 921 – for the 2025 legislative session. The bill got unanimous support from the Florida House; however, it died in the Senate Rules Committee on June 16.
Florida initially dropped cursive writing from its academic standards in 2010, but it was reinstated in 2014.
While not specifically stated in the state’s statutorily ordered instruction, cursive writing is part of Florida’s B.E.S.T. English Arts (ELA) standards for grades three through fifth. This means schools are obligated to teach cursive writing to students in these respective grades.
Though B.E.S.T. standards require schools to teach cursive writing, the institutions are not exactly obligated to make sure students can read and comprehend cursive writing.
The 2026 Florida legislative session is scheduled to start on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026.
If the bill were to pass this time around, it would go into effect on July 1, 2026.
Nick Anschultz is a Report for America corps member and writes about education for Mainstreet Daily News. This position is supported by local donations through the Community Catalyst for Local Journalism Fund at the Community Foundation of North Central Florida.
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Its a good discipline to lear, it slows you down and can make you more selective and reflective…I’m expecting majot pushback but good nevertheless. To make it more reasonable make it a simple Pass / Fail for a few years.
Probably a good idea. As I understand that some younger folks that never learned and/or cannot write in cursive, do not have a consistent signature they can use for voting, drivers license, and/or other paper legal documents.
Another GOP window dressing bill. Why worry about jobs, wages, housing shortages, disaster preparedness, unaffordable insurance and unavailable healthcare when you can prioritize handwriting, renaming roads and repainting crosswalks. Bread and circuses, but without the bread.
Theoretically, cursive is generally faster than block printing because it reduces pen lifts and allows for a continuous, flowing motion.
I’ve often wondered why cursive was dropped in the first place.
On the other hand, Mr. Whitten makes a good point.
This is a long response, but it is a topic on which I have experience to share.
As a former elementary teacher who used to teach cursive writing, and a former Career Exploration Specialist to college students, I disagree with our legislature even proposing HB 127 bill for multiple reasons:
1. There are more important objectives to teach in this century. In the Information Age, students need instruction on how to utilize technologies, access primary resources, and cross check facts. We need citizens who are prepared and who can keep up with the very real competition of other countries’ use of the same types of technologies.
2. Age appropriateness matters. Second graders are still developing fine motor control and need to continue to learn to print.
3. Classroom time is a factor. Teaching cursive could take at least 20 minutes of daily instruction and practice out of the already overloaded curriculum.
4. Teacher time is a factor. Grading handwriting is time consuming and students often do not get immediate feedback.
5. Employability does not hinge on cursive writing skills. In my years of assisting students in selecting careers, I cannot think of one that required cursive writing as a job qualification.
6. Cursive writing can be self-taught or offered as an elective class, for those motivated to learn. I learned how to write in script used in 1776 by using a copy of the Declaration of Independence. I took a community education class in calligraphy and purchased books to learn different styles.
7. Time taken to write. Cursive and print writing can both be done rapidly. The fact that printing takes a little longer is negligible and may also provide the brain time to focus on the words. Computer typed essays are by far faster, especially during tests. This allows students more time to outline and plan the essay. It also makes it easier for teachers to determine if students have utilized AI or plagiarized more easily when writing their papers.
8. Computers can interpret printed writing with more accuracy than cursive. Modern technologies are used to read job applications, envelopes, checks, etc. Introducing cursive entails more time to adapt technologies.
9. Individuality is still important. When in high school or college, I was instructed to develop my own signature that might not be identical to the cursive I learned in order to have a unique signature on legal documents. Currently, I have met college students who feel ashamed that they cannot sign their name in cursive, yet they still have a unique signature.
10. This is a waste of taxpayers time and money! There are far more pressing issues to address, especially in the realm of education. The money that would be spent educating teachers how to teach cursive, buying textbooks, providing proper writing paper, and the time spent grading the results are all expenses. I have no doubt there are many constituents (Baby Boomers like me?), who want cursive writing to live on. Sometimes, it behooves our legislatures to remind us that the next generations are the ones who will be impacted by these laws. Public schools are already struggling to manage with the monies they have left after other legislation has funneled funds to charter schools.
Stupid