Students in Ohio schools may soon be required to learn cursive

Students in Ohio schools may soon be required to learn cursive
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By Chris Anderson | December 7, 2018 at 1:44 PM EST - Updated December 7 at 9:18 PM

CLEVELAND, OH (WOIO) - Cursive could soon become part of the English language arts curriculum in Ohio schools.

House Bill 58, which passed favorably in the Ohio Senate on Thursday with a vote of 27-2, would require the Ohio Department of Education to include cursive handwriting instruction in the curriculum. Schools would then decide if the curriculum would become part of regular lessons.

If passed into legislation and accepted by schools, students would learn how to write in cursive by the fifth grade. The Ohio House already approved a version in June.

[ Current version: House Bill 58, "Require instruction in cursive handwriting" ]

The bill states, in part:

The department of education shall include supplemental instructional materials on the development of handwriting as a universal skill in the English language arts model curriculum under division (B) of section 3301.079 of the Revised Code for grades kindergarten through five. The instructional materials shall be designed to enable students to print letters and words legibly by grade three and create readable documents using legible cursive handwriting by the end of grade five. The instructional materials shall be included in the model curriculum not later than the first day of July that next succeeds the effective date of this amendment and, thereafter, shall periodically be updated.
House Bill 58

The proposed legislation was introduced in Feb. 2017 by Republican Reps. Andrew Brenner and Marilyn Slaby.

Revisions to the bill made by the Ohio Senate on Thursday must be accepted by the House before heading to the governor’s desk for final approval.

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