Idaho is bringing cursive back into the classroom.
Starting in the 2025–26 school year, all students will begin learning cursive in third grade and are expected to be proficient by fifth. The change comes from Senate Bill 1044, passed earlier this year, which even includes an emergency clause to make sure schools move fast on setting new standards.
The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Tammy Nichols (R–Middleton), said the goal is simple: keep cursive alive. The official statement behind the bill highlights that learning cursive helps students with signing documents, reading historical texts, and developing fine motor and memory skills, plus, it’s a unique form of personal expression that typing just can’t replace.
While cursive has technically been part of Idaho’s education standards for years, teachers weren’t required to emphasize it. That’s about to change.
State superintendent Debbie Critchfield said her department is taking a “watch, see, and support” approach as schools adjust. She admits teachers often give a collective sigh when new requirements come around, but many already have cursive in their lesson plans. “The ones that are already teaching cursive will say, ‘I’ve been doing this, it’s not hard for me,’” she said.
Grade 5 5. W-HWK.7 Write in cursive legibly and fluently by hand with a consistent form and recognizable signature.
Others may need more time and support to get comfortable.
Critchfield’s team sent out a four-page guide to help teachers pace their instruction — from learning letter shapes in third grade to writing short pieces in cursive by fifth. She said the goal isn’t to overwhelm anyone, but to create consistency across the state.
“We know that students who can read and write in cursive tend to be stronger readers,” she said. “So this isn’t just about handwriting, it’s part of literacy, too.”
Idaho now joins more than half the country in requiring cursive instruction. It’s a shift that reverses what happened after 2010, when Common Core standards dropped cursive entirely. In recent years, several states have brought it back, viewing handwriting as a skill worth saving in an age of keyboards and AI.
Each school district will set its own expectations for what “proficient” cursive looks like, and the state won’t be tracking student percentages. For now, the focus is on giving students the tools — and time — to make cursive writing feel natural again.
Source: Adapted from reporting by Idaho Education News, “Your fifth grader’s cursive may soon outdo yours.” Copyright © IdahoEdNews.org.
