---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT relating to public school students' communication skills."
description: "Amend KRS 156.160 to require cursive writing to be included as a course of study in all elementary schools beginning in the 2025-2026 school year; create new sections of KRS Chapter 158 to establish a public high school graduation requirement that a student demonstrate the ability to sign his or her own name in cursive; direct the Kentucky Board of Education to promulgate administrative regulations to administer the section and create a waiver process for students physically unable to demonstrate a cursive signature; require all public high schools to offer a course in typing and cursive writing; direct Kentucky Board of Education to promulgate administrative regulations to establish academic standards for the course; require successful completion of the course to be a graduation requirement from the 2025-2026 school year through the 2028-2029 school year."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ky"
legislature: "Kentucky General Assembly"
session: "2024RS"
identifier: "SB 167"
citation: "Kentucky SB 167 (2024RS)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Administrative Regulations and Proceedings", "Boards and Commissions", "Children and Minors", "Education", "Elementary and Secondary"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["G. Neal", "L. Tichenor", "M. Wilson", "M. Wise", "S. Funke Frommeyer"]
version_count: 3
action_count: 21
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2024-02-02T05:00:00+00:00"
last_action: "2024-04-17T04:00:00+00:00"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/1f595922-d27f-47b6-be0b-6be6d08055ca"
source_url: "https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/record/24RS/sb167.html"
source_hash: "7e2abd020e601b02e246600df1de178d09bfcfd0f1d5a480402d3287cc7f2941"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ky"]
---

# Kentucky SB 167 (2024RS) — AN ACT relating to public school students' communication skills.

Amend KRS 156.160 to require cursive writing to be included as a course of study in all elementary schools beginning in the 2025-2026 school year; create new sections of KRS Chapter 158 to establish a public high school graduation requirement that a student demonstrate the ability to sign his or her own name in cursive; direct the Kentucky Board of Education to promulgate administrative regulations to administer the section and create a waiver process for students physically unable to demonstrate a cursive signature; require all public high schools to offer a course in typing and cursive writing; direct Kentucky Board of Education to promulgate administrative regulations to establish academic standards for the course; require successful completion of the course to be a graduation requirement from the 2025-2026 school year through the 2028-2029 school year.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/recorddocuments/bill/24RS/sb167/orig_bill.pdf)
2. **Acts Chapter 203** (committee substitute) — [source](https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/acts/24RS/documents/0203.pdf)
3. **Current/Final** (committee substitute) — [source](https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/recorddocuments/bill/24RS/sb167/bill.pdf)

## Votes

- Final Passage — **pass** (pass) · upper
- PASS SB 167 W/ scs1 — **pass** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- G. Neal — primary (person)
- L. Tichenor — primary (person)
- M. Wilson — primary (person)
- M. Wise — primary (person)
- S. Funke Frommeyer — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2024-02-02T05:00:00+00:00** introduced in Senate `introduction`
- **2024-02-02T05:00:00+00:00** to Committee on Committees (S) `referral-committee`
- **2024-02-06T05:00:00+00:00** to Education (S) `referral-committee`
- **2024-02-29T05:00:00+00:00** reported favorably, 1st reading, to Calendar with Committee Substitute (1) `committee-passage`
- **2024-03-01T05:00:00+00:00** 2nd reading, to Rules `reading-2`
- **2024-03-01T05:00:00+00:00** posted for passage in the Regular Orders of the Day for Tuesday, March 05, 2024
- **2024-03-05T05:00:00+00:00** 3rd reading, passed 37-1 with Committee Substitute (1) `passage, reading-3`
- **2024-03-06T05:00:00+00:00** received in House
- **2024-03-06T05:00:00+00:00** to Committee on Committees (H) `referral-committee`
- **2024-03-08T05:00:00+00:00** to Education (H) `referral-committee`
- **2024-03-21T04:00:00+00:00** reported favorably, 1st reading, to Calendar `committee-passage`
- **2024-03-22T04:00:00+00:00** 2nd reading, to Rules `reading-2`
- **2024-03-26T04:00:00+00:00** floor amendments (1) and (2-title) filed `amendment-introduction`
- **2024-04-12T04:00:00+00:00** taken from Rules
- **2024-04-12T04:00:00+00:00** placed in the Orders of the Day
- **2024-04-12T04:00:00+00:00** 3rd reading, passed 87-10 `passage, reading-3`
- **2024-04-12T04:00:00+00:00** received in Senate
- **2024-04-12T04:00:00+00:00** enrolled, signed by President of the Senate `passage`
- **2024-04-12T04:00:00+00:00** enrolled, signed by Speaker of the House `passage`
- **2024-04-12T04:00:00+00:00** delivered to Governor
- **2024-04-17T04:00:00+00:00** signed by Governor (Acts Ch. 203) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/1f595922-d27f-47b6-be0b-6be6d08055ca`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Kentucky legislature records).