Cursive laws by state (2026): where US schools must teach it

If you teach elementary school in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, or Florida, a new line appeared in your standards documents this school year: cursive, by grade level, with your name on it. Parents are getting the same message sideways — a homework sheet in cursive, a note in the newsletter, a kid asking "why does my letter look funny?"

This page is the reference you'll want bookmarked: every state that requires cursive instruction as of October 2026, with the bill number, the effective date, and the grades involved — followed by a plain-English plan for the classroom or kitchen table if your state just joined the list.

The quick answer

• About 27 states now require or explicitly encourage cursive — 18 with an actual law on the books, the rest through state standards or state board requirements (NEA, March 2026; FOX's independent count, September 2026);
• At least nine states have no requirement: Hawaii, Indiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming. (Indiana and Missouri are the two most often mislisted as "required" — both have bills pending, neither has passed.)
• The wave is recent and still moving. Oklahoma and Kentucky in 2024, then New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Florida in 2026 — on top of California's law, effective January 2024.

Cursive requirements, state by state (October 2026)

States with a cursive law (18)

Required through state standards (not a new law)

No statewide requirement

Hawaii, Indiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, Wyoming — no cursive requirement; districts decide. Indiana is the cautionary example for parents who trust a single source: it's listed as "required" on several tracking maps, but the legislature has voted down repeat attempts, and a 2023 bill was watered down to a reporting requirement. In most of the remaining states it's simply a local decision — New York, for instance, encourages cursive without mandating it, while New York City's district sets its own rule.

Bills still in play (October 2026)

Minnesota (SF 173), Missouri (HB 2049), Illinois (SB 2676, which would pin grades 3–5), and South Carolina (Bill 3578, which would start cursive in grade 2). Watch those four — each would move its state into the law column.

A note on counting, because you'll see different numbers in the news: the National Education Association counted 27 states requiring or encouraging cursive (March 2026) and FOX independently tallied 27 that September; Education Week counted 24 back in November 2024, before this year's laws; MyCursive's map counts 32 by scoring "requirement" more broadly. All of them are honest tallies of slightly different things — statute vs. standards vs. "mandatory plus encouraged." The tables above score a state as "requires" when the law or the adopted standards name cursive at specific grade levels; states marked * are reported secondhand and worth a local check.

What "required" actually means (the three flavors)

Laws look alike in headlines but do different things in classrooms:

1. Statute (a law passed by the legislature) — the strongest form. A bill names cursive, names grades, and districts must comply. California's AB 446 and Florida's 2026 law are in this category;
2. State standards (adopted by the state board/education agency) — cursive appears in grade-level ELA standards. Texas is the classic example: cursive from grade 2, with students expected to complete compositions in cursive by grade 5. No new law needed — it's already the rule;
3. Encouraged / recommended — guidance or model curriculum mentions cursive without a grade-level mandate. This is the category that makes the counts disagree.

The practical difference for a teacher: standards and statutes tend to come with grade-level benchmarks ("by the end of grade 3"), while "encouraged" usually means the decision drifts to the district or the individual teacher — which is how cursive quietly disappears.

The 2024–2026 wave, in one timeline

Cursive left most US classrooms after the 2010 Common Core standards set keyboarding expectations and skipped handwriting entirely. The comeback started around 2016; the current wave is the fastest stretch yet:

• Jul 2023 — New Hampshire (HB 170): cursive and multiplication facts, both by the end of grade 5;
• Jan 2024 — California (AB 446): cursive instruction required in grades 1–6, the biggest state to mandate it in decades;
• 2024 — Kentucky (SB 167): cursive proficiency by the end of grade 5, phased in from the 2025–26 school year. Oklahoma (HB 3727) required it in grades 3–5 starting the same school year;
• 2026 — New Jersey (signed January, effective 2026–27): cursive in grades 3–5. Pennsylvania (Act 2, effective April): a requirement covering public and private elementary schools — one of the few to reach private classrooms. Florida (SB 182, effective July 1): grades 3–5 with a proficiency checkpoint before middle school.

Two more years like this and the "states without cursive" list will be shorter than the other one.

Your state just added cursive: the Monday-morning plan

Nobody hands you a curriculum with the bill. Here's the four-week cycle elementary teachers land on when cursive shows up mid-year — it works for grade 2 (usually the starting grade) and for grade 4–6 catch-up groups, with one change:

1. Week 1 — lowercase ovals and waves: c, a, d, g, o, q, then i, t, u, e, w. One stroke family per day, one line of practice per kid. Type the day's letters into the cursive worksheets generator, pick Cedarville Cursive, set row height to the Grade 2 preset (or 90px on the slider), print one sheet per student;
2. Week 2 — bumps and first words: n, m, h, b, r, p, then real words: man, ham, him, run. Kids connect letters for the first time this week — make it a ceremony, not a correction session;
3. Week 3 — loops and their names: l, k, f, j, then each child's own name. The name tracing generator prints any name as an example row plus tracing rows — seven-year-olds and ten-year-olds both treat their own name as the event of the week;
4. Week 4 — sentences and stamina: two-sentence paragraphs using the week's letters. The daily cursive practice page prints a date-stamped warm-up sheet (strokes, letters, words, sentence) so the routine survives week 5.

The grade-level difference that matters: grades 2–3 are learning letter formation — big rows, fat pencils, celebration over neatness. Grades 4–6 are usually relearning or catching up — smaller rows, real content (spelling words, science vocabulary), and speed as the goal. Same generator, different settings: Grade 2 preset and celebration for the young ones; 68–80px rows and their current word list for the older groups.

Ten minutes, three times a week, is enough — that's the same schedule that works for teaching cursive at home, and it fits in a morning-work slot.

People also ask

Which states do not require cursive in school? As of October 2026: Hawaii, Indiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming have no cursive requirement — districts there may still teach it by local choice, and Minnesota and Missouri both have bills pending.

Does my state test cursive? Almost never directly. Florida's 2026 law is the outlier with a proficiency checkpoint before middle school; Kentucky sets an "end of grade 5" proficiency expectation. Everywhere else, cursive lives in standards that appear — if at all — inside broader English language arts assessment.

Do private schools have to teach cursive too? Usually not — most mandates bind public schools. Pennsylvania's 2026 law is the notable exception, covering private elementary schools as well.

Why did schools stop teaching cursive in the first place? The 2010 Common Core State Standards required keyboarding and left cursive out, and state education agencies followed the document they were given. The comeback began around 2016 — the full story is in is cursive still taught in schools?.

Sources & maintenance note

State entries above reflect statutes and adopted standards as of October 2026, with bill numbers and effective dates cited per row (state legislature sites and state education agencies, plus NEA's March 2026 overview and MyCursive's state map for cross-checking). Cursive legislation is actively moving — this table is re-checked every January, and the "no requirement" list is the first thing to shrink. Verify against your own state's current ELA standards before citing it in a staff meeting.

Free tools for the Monday plan: the cursive worksheets generator (any word list → traceable rows), the daily cursive practice sheet (date-stamped, no prep), and printable three-line paper for freehand copying. No signup, no watermark.