All Idaho students must begin learning cursive in third grade and be proficient by fifth grade, per Senate Bill 1044 passed in the 2025 legislative session. Those not meeting the standard will require “additional instruction.” 

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Tammy Nichols, R-Middleton, mandated cursive instruction with an “emergency clause,” requiring the state to set proficiency benchmarks by the start of the 2025-26 school year. 

According to the bill’s statement of purpose, cursive handwriting helps with “signing documents, reading historical texts, and offering personal expression.” The statement also notes potential skill-based benefits, such as fine motor coordination and memory. 

Teaching cursive starting in third grade and continuing through fifth grade is already part of the Idaho Content Standards. However, individual schools and teachers choose which standards to emphasize, with those being tested on state tests often prioritized. 

State superintendent Debbie Critchfield said the state is in a “watch, see, and support mode” to determine how much heavy lifting this new legislation will be for teachers. 

Critchfield explained that it isn’t unusual for teachers to issue a “collective sigh” about changing requirements in their classrooms. However, she said, “the ones that are already (teaching cursive) will say, ‘I’ve already been doing this, it’s not hard for me.’’’

Those who haven’t may need more support. 

Critchfield’s team sent out a four-page guidance document to help teachers pace instruction for each grade, starting with learning cursive letters and working up to publishing a short piece in cursive.

“I don’t think the intent (of the bill) was to overwhelm teachers. It’s really going to come down to the individual (teacher). … It’s definitely on our monitoring list.”

Critchfield appreciates that the law creates consistency around cursive handwriting all over the state.

“We do know that there is research that shows that students who can read and write in cursive, that there are connections to better proficiency in reading in the younger grades.” 

Idaho joins over half of all states that require cursive handwriting. During the 2010s, Common Core standards did not include cursive, diminishing its influence. However, some states have recently started requiring cursive again, potentially as a backlash to the growing use of artificial intelligence and typing in schools. Some historians have also advocated for a return to cursive. 

It will be up to individual school districts to determine exactly what proficiency looks like and to create their own exams. The state is not planning on tracking proficiency percentages.