California Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 446 into law on Friday, Oct. 13 that will require cursive handwriting instruction in California schools from first through sixth grades.

The bill was authored by Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk-Silva, D-Fullerton, a former public elementary school teacher. Legislators sent the measure to Newsom’s desk on Wednesday, Oct. 11.

Although cursive handwriting writing instruction is already part of the California educational standard, Quirk-Silva said the implementation of the curriculum varies greatly from classroom to classroom.

The bill does not require a specific grade in which teachers would have to teach cursive handwriting, but does require teachers to be intentional about including cursive instruction in each school grade from first through sixth grade.

Quirk-Silva said the main goal of the bill is to give students the ability to read in cursive, as well as writing it. She said most historical records, such as diaries, letters, ledgers and other documents, were written in cursive.

“A lot of the historical documents going back two or three decades are actually in cursive,” she said. “I went on 23andMe looking for some family records and they were all written in cursive.”

AB 446 was joined together with two additional education bills that mandate instruction on climate change and mental health in first through sixth grades.