Parents
Does my kid's school teach cursive? A state-by-state guide
More than two dozen states now require, expect, or explicitly include cursive handwriting instruction. Here's where all 50 states stand and what mandates actually deliver.
Reference document
More than two dozen states now require, expect, or explicitly include cursive handwriting instruction. That does not mean every child in those states becomes fluent, and it does not mean children in other states never see cursive. This guide lists all 50 states and explains what the state-level rule actually tells you.
The first thing to know is that "Does my state require cursive?" is not the same question as "Will my child become fluent in cursive at school?"
State laws and standards can require a school to include cursive. They rarely define a fluency target, a curriculum, a weekly practice schedule, or an assessment that proves a child can actually write connected cursive at a usable speed. Your child's real experience still depends on the district, the school, the teacher, and the amount of practice time.
This post is the state-level map. Use it to know what your school is supposed to do, then ask the school what it actually does.
The map at a glance
Statuses below are about statewide public-school requirements or expectations. Private schools, parochial schools, charter schools, and homeschool curricula may teach cursive regardless of the state-level rule.
| State | State-level status | What that means |
|---|---|---|
| Alabama | Required | State law or statewide policy requires cursive instruction. |
| Alaska | Local discretion | No clear statewide cursive requirement found; districts and schools decide. |
| Arizona | Required | State law requires cursive reading and writing in the common-school course of study. |
| Arkansas | Required | State law or statewide policy requires cursive instruction. |
| California | Required | State law requires handwriting instruction to include cursive or joined italics in grades 1-6, with grade-level implementation left to local educational agencies. |
| Colorado | Local discretion | No clear statewide cursive requirement found; districts and schools decide. |
| Connecticut | Local discretion | No clear statewide cursive requirement found; districts and schools decide. |
| Delaware | Required | State law requires every public elementary school to teach cursive by the end of grade 4. |
| Florida | Required | Cursive is included in state elementary English language arts expectations. |
| Georgia | Required in standards | State standards include cursive in grades 3-5. |
| Hawaii | Local discretion | No clear statewide cursive requirement found; districts and schools decide. |
| Idaho | Required | State board policy requires cursive handwriting instruction by grade 3 and continued support for students who do not reach proficiency by grade 5. |
| Illinois | Required | State law requires cursive instruction in elementary grades. |
| Indiana | Local discretion / encouraged | State law allows school corporations to include cursive; it is not a statewide mandate. |
| Iowa | Required | State board standards require cursive instruction in public schools. |
| Kansas | Required in standards | Kansas handwriting standards expect students to write legibly in cursive and comprehend cursive text. |
| Kentucky | Required | State law requires cursive instruction before the end of grade 5. |
| Louisiana | Required | State law or statewide policy requires cursive instruction. |
| Maine | Local discretion | A 2025-2026 cursive bill died in the Senate; no statewide requirement is currently in effect. |
| Maryland | Required | State law requires public elementary schools to provide instruction leading to legible cursive handwriting by the end of grade 5. |
| Massachusetts | Required in standards | State standards expect students to write legibly and fluently by hand using print or cursive. |
| Michigan | Local discretion | No clear statewide cursive requirement found; districts and schools decide. |
| Minnesota | Local discretion | Current ELA standards do not include a cursive benchmark; districts and schools decide. |
| Mississippi | Required | State law or statewide policy requires cursive instruction. |
| Missouri | Local discretion | No statewide requirement is in effect; cursive bills have been introduced. |
| Montana | Local discretion | No clear statewide cursive requirement found; districts and schools decide. |
| Nebraska | Local discretion | The state sets content standards, but curriculum decisions are local; no clear statewide cursive requirement found. |
| Nevada | Local discretion | No clear statewide cursive requirement found; districts and schools decide. |
| New Hampshire | Required | State law requires cursive instruction. |
| New Jersey | Required | Beginning in the 2026-2027 school year, public schools must provide cursive instruction in grades 3-5. |
| New Mexico | Local discretion | No clear statewide cursive requirement found; districts and schools decide. |
| New York | Local discretion | Curriculum decisions are local; cursive bills have been introduced but no statewide mandate is currently in effect. |
| North Carolina | Required | State law or statewide policy requires cursive instruction. |
| North Dakota | Local discretion | State guidance references cursive as a common grade 3 choice, but local districts adopt curriculum. |
| Ohio | Required | State law and Department of Education guidance require manuscript and cursive handwriting instruction. |
| Oklahoma | Required | State law or statewide policy requires cursive instruction. |
| Oregon | Local discretion | No clear statewide cursive requirement found; districts and schools decide. |
| Pennsylvania | Required | Act 2 of 2026 requires cursive handwriting in ongoing writing curriculum at public and private schools. |
| Rhode Island | Local discretion | No clear statewide cursive requirement found; districts and schools decide. |
| South Carolina | Required | State law or statewide policy requires cursive instruction. |
| South Dakota | Local discretion | No clear statewide cursive requirement found; districts and schools decide. |
| Tennessee | Required | State law requires cursive instruction. |
| Texas | Required | State standards require cursive instruction in elementary grades. |
| Utah | Required in standards | Grade 3 standards expect students to write upper- and lowercase cursive letters; grade 4 standards continue into fluent cursive and manuscript writing. |
| Vermont | Local discretion | Cursive is not required statewide, though individual schools may teach it. |
| Virginia | Required | State standards require cursive instruction. |
| Washington | Local discretion | No clear statewide cursive requirement found; districts and schools decide. |
| West Virginia | Required | State law or statewide policy requires cursive instruction. |
| Wisconsin | Local discretion | No clear statewide cursive requirement found; districts and schools decide. |
| Wyoming | Local discretion | No clear statewide cursive requirement found; districts and schools decide. |
Why the map looks this way
For most of the twentieth century, cursive was taught in essentially every American elementary school. The Palmer Method dominated through the 1950s, replaced by Zaner-Bloser, D'Nealian, and other school handwriting programs in the back half of the century. Cursive instruction time fell decade by decade as typing instruction rose and as schools added more required content to the school day.
The Common Core State Standards, released in 2010, did not include cursive. They did not ban it. They simply left it out, which made it easy for districts to shorten or drop cursive without giving up a tested standard.
The reversal has happened state by state. Some states passed laws. Some added cursive back into English language arts standards. Some left the choice local but kept optional guidance. Pennsylvania and New Jersey are the newest high-profile additions, both signed into law in early 2026.
That is why exact national counts are slippery. A law, a state board rule, an ELA standard, a model curriculum, and local discretion are not the same thing. The useful question is not only "Is cursive required?" but "What kind of requirement is it, and does my school actually teach toward fluency?"
What "mandated" actually means
A state cursive mandate usually does three things:
It places cursive somewhere in the elementary curriculum, most often between grades 2 and 5.
It makes it harder for a district to ignore cursive entirely.
It gives parents a concrete basis for asking the school what is being taught.
What it usually does not do: guarantee a specific curriculum, a specific number of practice hours, a specific definition of fluency, or a meaningful accountability measure if the school treats cursive as a short worksheet unit.
The result is a wide range of real-world outcomes. In some districts, cursive is a serious weekly commitment with clear instruction and repeated practice. In other districts in the same mandate state, cursive is a short packet, a few model letters, and a checkmark. Your child's experience depends more on implementation than on the existence of the state rule.
What to actually do
Start with one email
Ask your child's teacher directly: "Does our school teach cursive? In what grade, for how many minutes per week, with what curriculum, and to what standard of fluency?" The answer is more useful than the state map.
If the answer is "we teach it," verify by looking at your child's work. A second or third grader who has been taught cursive should be able to write the lowercase cursive alphabet and join two or three letters into a simple word. By the end of the year in which cursive was officially taught, your child should be able to read basic cursive and write more than isolated letter forms.
If the answer is "we do not teach it," or "we teach a short unit and move on," your options are:
Advocate at the school or district level. PTAs, school board meetings, and direct conversations with curriculum coordinators are the channels. This is slow but real.
Teach it at home with a workbook. Zaner-Bloser, Learning Without Tears, and similar publishers sell workbook curricula. These work for a determined parent with consistent practice time. They do not catch stroke-order errors automatically, and they do not adapt to the child.
Buy a guided solution. A private handwriting tutor will work, but tutoring is expensive and schedule-bound. A structured app like Scribble is designed to give the feedback loop of tutoring on your child's schedule. Each path has tradeoffs.
The right answer depends on your time, budget, and school context. Whatever you choose, choose deliberately. Cursive is worth doing well, and doing it badly is worse than not doing it.
A note on schools that still teach cursive well
If your child is in a private school, a parochial school, a Montessori school, a public charter school with a classical or traditional bent, or a homeschool environment with a strong handwriting curriculum, your child may already be in good shape. Verify with the teacher rather than assuming.
The places where the gap is most common are traditional public schools in local-discretion states, public charter schools with a primarily STEM or progressive orientation, and private schools that dropped cursive in the 2010s and have not added it back. If your child is in one of these and you care about cursive, you may need to fill the gap.
Sources and update notes
We update this guide twice a year, in January and August, and after major legislative action. For current policy checks, we prioritize state education departments, state code, state legislative records, and official standards documents over third-party maps.
Key sources for this version:
- California Department of Education guidance on AB 446
- Delaware Code § 4138
- New Jersey Department of Education guidance on P.L. 2025, c.284
- Pennsylvania Act 2 of 2026 announcement
- Kansas handwriting standards
- Utah grade 3 English Language Arts standards
- Minnesota 2020 ELA standards page
- Maine LD 78 bill status
- New York State standards and curriculum guidance
- North Dakota content standards guidance
If you notice an error or a missing update, write to us at hello@usescribble.com.
Last updated: May 2026.