Children in first through sixth grade will now be required to learn cursive handwriting after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 446 into law on Oct. 13.
The bill turned law was introduced by Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk-Silva, D-Fullerton, who was a former public elementary school teacher before entering politics, the Sacramento Bee reported.
The new law will require teachers to implement some instruction regarding cursive handwriting from first through sixth grade instead of requiring educators to teach it during a specific grade, according to the law’s text.
The law’s primary goal is to give students the ability to read and write in cursive, Assemblymember Quirk-Silva told the Sacramento Bee. She also pointed out that most historical records were written in cursive.
“A lot of the historical documents going back two or three decades are actually in cursive,” Quirk-Silva said. “I went on 23andMe looking for some family records and they were all written in cursive.”
The new law means that cursive handwriting instruction will now be required learning for California students, just like English, math and social sciences.