Across classrooms that swapped penmanship drills for tablets years ago, cursive is suddenly back on the lesson plan. A new wave of state laws is telling schools to dust off the lined paper and teach students how to write in script again, turning what many parents saw as a lost art into a fresh requirement. The shift is sparking a lively debate over what kind of handwriting, if any, belongs in a digital school day.
The headline change is simple enough: students will once again have to learn to read and write in cursive. Beneath that, though, lie questions about how kids will balance screens and notebooks, how teachers will squeeze one more skill into crowded schedules, and whether looping letters still matter in a world of Chromebooks and chat apps.
Pennsylvania’s cursive comeback and the wider wave
In Pennsylvania, the pendulum has swung firmly back toward script. Gov. Josh Shapiro signed legislation that requires elementary schools to teach students how to read and write cursive, turning a nostalgic skill into a statewide mandate. The law applies to public and private elementary programs and, according to supporters, is meant to make sure children can both sign their own names and read historical documents that are written in script. The move puts Pennsylvania squarely in the middle of a growing national push to restore cursive after years when it quietly slipped out of many curricula.
Coverage of the new requirement notes that Gov. Josh Shapiro approved the measure after it cleared the House and Senate with bipartisan support, with Rep. Dane Watro backing the bill that spells out how cursive must be woven into elementary instruction. Reports on the change have highlighted concerns from educators and researchers about fading cursive skills among, who often struggle to read script on everything from family letters to government records. Another account of the law’s passage stresses that the mandate reaches across both public and private schools and that supporters see it as part of a broader effort to strengthen basic literacy in Pennsylvania, not just as a nostalgic nod to earlier generations.
New Jersey, California and the race to re-teach script
Pennsylvania is not alone. Across the river, New Jersey has decided that cursive is not optional either. Governor Phil Murphy signed a law that tells elementary school teachers to bring back formal instruction in script for the 2026–27 school year, with the goal of making sure children can both write in cursive and read documents that use it. The new requirement applies to New Jersey public school students in specific elementary grades, and state leaders have framed it as a way to help kids navigate everything from handwritten notes to legal and financial paperwork later in life. The shift puts New Jersey in the same camp as states that never fully dropped cursive or that recently revived it.
The New Jersey law did not appear out of thin air. Governor Murphy publicly backed the measure, and a separate account notes that Sens. Angela McKnight and Shirley Turner, along with Assembly members Verlina Reynolds-Jackson and Shanique Speight, helped drive the bill that revives cursive writing instruction in schools. One summary of the change explains that, beginning in September of the 2026–27 school year, New Jersey public schools will have to make room for script in their literacy blocks. Another report comparing the state to its peers notes that New Jersey classrooms are joining a national trend of reintroducing cursive while still keeping keyboarding and other digital skills, a reminder that the law is meant to add a hand skill, not erase tech.
Why lawmakers say cursive still matters
Supporters of these laws are not just chasing nostalgia for fountain pens and perfect loops. They argue that cursive builds fine motor skills, reinforces spelling and reading, and gives students a practical way to sign documents and decode older records. Advocates in California made a similar case when they pushed new California legislation that requires first through sixth graders to learn cursive, with Assemblymember Sharon Quirk-Silva explaining that students should be able to read historical documents and personal letters written in script. The measure, known as California Assembly Bill, folds cursive and joined italics into Pupil Instruction in Handwriting so that script is treated as a core part of elementary education rather than a decorative extra.
Researchers and policymakers who track these changes say the movement is bigger than a few coastal states. One national overview notes that at least 24 states have laws requiring cursive instruction, with seven, including California, Idaho, Indiana and Kansas, moving to strengthen those requirements in recent years. Another education analysis finds that the number of states that require schools to teach cursive is growing and that some now expect students to be able to read and write script proportionately by third grade. California’s own rollout has already begun, with one report explaining that learning cursive is in elementary school and that the state has joined a group of others that treat it as a mandatory part of literacy. A separate look at New Jersey and its neighbors notes that the state is one of several reintroducing cursive in classrooms, suggesting that the analog skill is enjoying a genuine policy comeback, not just a nostalgic moment.
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