LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — Cursive writing will return as a requirement in the classroom beginning this fall. Senate Bill 167, passed in 2024, ensures that cursive is taught in all elementary schools across the state.
Many school districts in central Kentucky, including schools Clark, Jessamine, and Woodford counties, already taught cursive writing to their students. The new law, however, sets expectations across the state for the style of handwriting to be taught.
“I was thrilled that this was mandated in Kentucky,” said Christina Bretz, senior internal learning manager at Learning Without Tears. Bretz also spent time as an occupational therapist, and she’s passionate about teaching handwriting skills.
“When children are able to put their thoughts on paper and write in a fluent way, it really does help to increase their self-esteem and their self-concept,” Bretz explained.
Cursive writing first dipped in priority when it was removed from Common Core standards.
“When Common Core came about, they kind of pushed handwriting out of those standards and really focused on reading and math,” Bretz said. “If it's not in the standards, why should we teach it? So that's really where we started to see this neglect of handwriting.”
After the passing of Senate Bill 167 in 2024, elementary schools are now required to teach cursive. Bretz shared how mandating cursive in the classroom has real learning benefits.
“Cursive writing is all about the connection,” she said. “When children are able to connect those letters together, they can produce that more fluent handwriting. That can help them with the speed of writing, which eventually is going to help with taking notes.”
“It also helps with the neural pathways in the brain, so it's actually working with both sides of the hemispheres in the brain, and it helps to recall information. When you're writing things down in cursive, you're going to be able to remember those things better.”
In the end, Bretz hopes these standards will help cursive become a useful tool for students to take way past these lessons in elementary school.
“One of the things that is really important is that we at least teach it for two years, because after that two years, that will help for it to become a skill for children that is kind of ingrained.”
