STORAGE NAME: h0921a.SAS
DATE: 3/11/2025
1
FLORIDA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
BILL ANALYSIS
This bill analysis was prepared by nonpartisan committee staff and does not constitute an official statement of legislative intent.
BILL #: HB 921
TITLE: Required Instruction in Cursive Writing
SPONSOR(S): Overdorf
COMPANION BILL: SB 1394 (Grall)
LINKED BILLS: None
RELATED BILLS: None
Committee References
Student Academic Success
17 Y, 0 N
Education & Employment
SUMMARY
Effect of the Bill:
The bill requires all public schools to provide cursive writing instruction to students in grades 2 through 5. By
grade 5, every student must demonstrate proficiency in reading and writing cursive through an evaluation of
written work.
Fiscal or Economic Impact:
None
JUMP TO SUMMARY ANALYSIS RELEVANT INFORMATION BILL HISTORY
ANALYSIS
EFFECT OF THE BILL:
The bill adds cursive writing to the statutorily required instruction for students in grades 2 through 5. Under the
bill, students must be taught how to form cursive letters, proper spacing and alignment, and must practice writing
complete words and sentences in cursive. (Section 1).
The bill requires each student to demonstrate proficiency in cursive writing through a written evaluation by the
end of grade 5. The bill defines “proficiency in cursive writing” as the ability to write upper and lowercase letters in
cursive, writing words and sentences legibly with proper spacing and alignment, and the ability to read and apply
cursive writing so as to support literacy development, including writing essays and other assignments in cursive in
accordance with state academic standards. (Section 1).
The effective date of the bill is July 1, 2025. (Section 2).
RELEVANT INFORMATION
SUBJECT OVERVIEW:
Required Instruction
Florida Law mandates that students be taught certain topics.
1 For example, students must be taught about the
Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Holocaust, African American history, and the history of Asian
Americans and Pacific islanders.
2 Those topics are general requirements with no specified grade level, but some
topics must be taught to specific grades.
3
Florida’s Academic Standards
1
Section 1003.42(2), F.S.
2
Section 1003.42(2)(a)-(i), F.S.
3
See e.g. Section 1003.42(o), F.S. JUMP TO SUMMARY ANALYSIS RELEVANT INFORMATION BILL HISTORY
2
Statutorily required instruction is a small fraction of the content that schools must incorporate into curriculum.
Florida law requires the State Board of Education (SBE) to develop academic standards that establish the core
content of curricula and the knowledge and skills that K-12 public school students are expected to acquire in
English Language Arts (ELA), science, mathematics, social studies, visual and performing arts, physical education,
health, and foreign languages.
4 Those academic standards must provide for the logical, sequential progression of
core curricular content that incrementally increases a student’s knowledge and skills over time.
5
On February 12, 2020, the SBE approved the adoption of new student academic standards for K-12 ELA and
mathematics called the Benchmarks for Excellent Student Thinking (B.E.S.T.) Standards.
6 The Department of
Education fully implemented the B.E.S.T standards in the 2022-2023 school year when the Florida Assessment of
Student Thinking (FAST)—the statewide standardized assessment for VPK through grade 10 ELA and VPK through
grade 8 mathematics—became aligned with the new standards.
7
Florida law requires each district school board to provide appropriate instruction that ensures that students meet
state academic standards.
8 As a result, most of the content schools are required to teach comes from the academic
standards adopted by the SBE, including the B.E.S.T. standards for ELA and mathematics.
Cursive Writing Instruction in Florida
In line with the adoption of Common Core standards, Florida dropped cursive writing from state academic
standards in 2010.
9 However, in 2014, the SBE reinstated cursive instruction requirements in its academic
standards.
10
Though cursive writing is not explicitly mentioned in Florida’s statutorily required instruction,
11 cursive writing is
included in the B.E.S.T. English Language Arts (ELA) standards for grades 3 through 5.
12 Therefore, schools are
required to teach cursive in grades 3 through 5. The current B.E.S.T. ELA standards require public schools to teach:
Grade 3—How to write all upper- and lower-case letters in cursive;
Grade 4—How to produce cursive writing that can be consistently read by others; and
Grade 5—How to produce legible cursive writing in the same time frame that students would use for
writing in print.
13
Under the B.E.S.T. standards, schools are not explicitly required to ensure that students can read and comprehend
cursive writing. Moreover, Florida law does not require schools to give any cursive writing examinations or
evaluations and neither cursive writing nor comprehension is assessed on the grades 3 through 5 FAST
assessments.
14
4
Section 1003.41, F.S.
5
Section 1003.41(1), F.S.
6
See Florida Department of Education, Florida ESSA State Plan (Aug. 2, 2023), at 7, available at
https://www.fldoe.org/core/fileparse.php/14196/urlt/fl-essa-stateplan080223.pdf; r. 6A-1.09401, F.A.C.
7
Florida Department of Education, Adoption and Implementation of the Benchmarks for Excellent Student Thinking (B.E.S.T.)
Standards (Feb. 13, 2020), available at https://info.fldoe.org/docushare/dsweb/Get/Document-8838/dps-2020-26.pdf.
8
Section 1003.42(2), F.S.
9
See Patch, What’s Behind Cursive Comeback in 22 States, Including Florida, https://patch.com/florida/stpete/whats-behind-
cursive-comeback-22-states-including-florida (last visited Mar. 4, 2025). For a progression of changes to Florida’s academic
standards since 1999, see Florida Department of State, Rule Title: Student Performance Standards,
https://www.flrules.org/gateway/RuleNo.asp?title=FINANCE%20AND%20ADMINISTRATION&ID=6A-1.09401 (last visited
March 5, 2025) (providing a sequence of links to proposed and adopted amendments to r. 6A-1.09401, F.A.C.).
10
Id.
11
See Section 1003.42(2), F.S.
12
CPALMS, ELA 3.C.1.1, https://www.cpalms.org/PreviewStandard/Preview/15220 (last visited Mar. 4, 2025); CPALMS, ELA
4.C.1.1, https://www.cpalms.org/PreviewStandard/Preview/14968 (last visited Mar. 4, 2025); CPALMS, ELA 5.C.1.1,
https://www.cpalms.org/PreviewStandard/Preview/15017 (last visited Mar. 4, 2025). CPALMS, short for Curriculum
Planning and Learning Management System, is the state of Florida’s official source for standards. Florida Department of
Education, Standards and Instructional Support, https://www.fldoe.org/academics/standards/ (last visited Mar. 4, 2025).
13
CPALMS, supra note 9.
14
See Florida Department of Education, Test Design Summary and Blueprint: FAST ELA Reading and B.E.S.T. Writing (updated
June 2024) available at https://www.fldoe.org/core/fileparse.php/20102/urlt/TDS-FAST-ELA.pdf. The Test Design Summary JUMP TO SUMMARY ANALYSIS RELEVANT INFORMATION BILL HISTORY
3
BILL HISTORY
COMMITTEE REFERENCE ACTION DATE
STAFF
DIRECTOR/
POLICY CHIEF
ANALYSIS
PREPARED BY
Student Academic Success
Subcommittee
17 Y, 0 N 3/11/2025 Sanchez Blank
Education & Employment
Committee
and Blueprint provides a comprehensive list of standards tested on FAST ELA assessments; cursive writing standards are not
included. Id.