starting cursive/copy work

My boys will be starting cursive this coming year.  Our older son is going into 6th grade.  His has dysgraphia, so it will be a struggle for him. I expect my younger to do decently.  His printing is average for 2nd grade going into third.   So — I’m wondering if I should focus exclusively on cursive letter/word formation and suspend other copywork until they have cursive down? or should they be competely different things.  My older will be focusing on typing more this coming year so that he can type his written narrations.  Typing will be much easier for him in the long run.  I am trying to think of situations where he will HAVE to use cursive and other than signing his name, the need for cursive is much, much less these days and with texting and computers getting even less important all the time.  These days students can type college class notes or record lectures on mp3 players. We are usually asked to print on most forms.  I wonder of we are not better off continuing to work towards uniformity and neatness in printing instead of cursive.