{"id":128535,"date":"2026-01-23T00:59:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T00:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/128535\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T00:59:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T00:59:09","slug":"house-panel-approves-bill-requiring-cursive-writing-instruction-in-florida-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/128535\/","title":{"rendered":"House panel approves bill requiring cursive writing instruction in Florida schools"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Cursive writing is considered an element that helps academic success.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Cursive may have fallen by the wayside, but Florida lawmakers want to bring it back \u2014 starting with a signature from Gov. Ron DeSantis.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">A bill (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.flsenate.gov\/Session\/Bill\/2026\/127\/ByVersion\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer nofollow\">HB 127<\/a>) unanimously approved by the House Education and Employment Committee Thursday would require second to fifth graders at public and charter schools receive cursive writing instruction.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The measure\u00a0 co-sponsored by Rep. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flhouse.gov\/Sections\/Representatives\/details.aspx?MemberId=4788&amp;LegislativeTermId=91\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Dana Trabulsy<\/a>, a Fort Pierce Republican, comes as multiple studies have shown that handwriting, especially cursive, is beginning to fade away in schools in favor of artificial intelligence and keyboards.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Trabulsy acknowledged that before she co-sponsored the bill, she presumed many people no longer wrote in cursive, a skill she said was important.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cWe\u2019re in a digital age right now,\u201d Trabulsy said in a presentation to the committee. \u201cWe\u2019ve really lost sight of our foundational skills that connect us to our history and sharpen our minds. If our students can\u2019t read cursive, they can\u2019t read the Declaration of Independence, they can\u2019t read the U.S. Constitution or even a grandparent\u2019s hand-written letter.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/floridaphosphate.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external noreferrer nofollow\" data-wpel-link=\"external\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-724003 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/FPC_FL-POLITICS-DISPLAY_728x90_MAR.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"728\" height=\"90\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/articles\/PMC7399101\/\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer nofollow\">National Library of Medicine<\/a> published an analysis in 2020 that found cursive writing is a fading skill, but asserted it \u201chas been considered an essential precursor for further academic success.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Trabulsy\u2019s bill, co-sponsored by Rep. Toby Overdorf, a Stuart Republican, would specifically require students be taught cursive letter formation, proper spacing and alignment. At the end of fifth grade, students would be required to demonstrate proficiency in cursive.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">HB 127 has now cleared all of its committees and is heading to the House floor while an identical bill is working its way through the Senate (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.flhouse.gov\/Sections\/Bills\/billsdetail.aspx?BillId=82957&amp;\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer nofollow\">SB 444<\/a>). Last year, a similar measure garnered support in the House but failed to gain traction in the Senate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cursive writing is considered an element that helps academic success. Cursive may have fallen by the wayside, but&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128536,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[5959,5461,28,30,29,63541,63542,63543,412,63544,5960],"class_list":["post-128535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-cursive-writing","tag-dana-trabulsy","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-hb-127","tag-house-education-and-employment-committee","tag-national-library-of-medicine","tag-ron-desantis","tag-sb-444","tag-toby-overdorf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}