Pennsylvania’s Cursive Legislation. Here’s where it stands in February 2024

Pennsylvania may join nearly two dozen other states in requiring public schools to teach cursive writing — by law.

Both California and New Hampshire passed bills in 2023, making cursive handwriting mandatory. A few other states have now introduced legislation to require it for their 2024 legislative sessions (Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Kentucky). UPDATE: Kentucky passed and signed a law to bring cursive back into the classroom. Details here.

Note: Keep up with all current cursive events (and there is lots of them!) by looking at our cursive news page.

Timeline for Mandatory Cursive in Pennsylvania

• December 12th, 2023: PA House Rep, Joseph Adams posted a memorandum stating his intention to submit legislation to require cursive in the 2023-2024 House session.
• December 15th, 2023: The news of Joe Adams memo broke that he planned to introduce a bill requiring cursive be taught for the 2023-2024 legislative session.
• December 28th, 2023: House Bill 1934 was referred to the “Education” committee of the PA House, where it currently sits (see the two images below).

Here’s the current list of bills currently being looked over by the Education Committee:

And that’s where the bill currently sits. In committee, with no votes.

We’ll be updating this story regularly. The next movement could happen later in March (the next session days begin March 18th).

What the people of PA think

Here’s a news story of Rep Joe Adams memo, as well as a poll issued by the reporter:

Here’s a link to the Twitter/X post referenced in the above video:

Research for yourself (links to resources)

• HB 1934 general information page
• Link to HB 1934 vote tracking page
• Link to Rep Adams original memorandum
• Link to PA House Education Committee page

Stay tuned, and we’ll keep this page updated!