I haven't been able to find a good free instance, but the following URL has the font for $9.95. That seems pretty close to free.

http://www.fonts4teachers.com/aboutfon.htm

for bparnes:

Thank you for your help, the website that you refered me to does have some very good fonts.  However they are "d'nealian like", Not a true d'nealian.  Our school district is d'nealian only, unfortunately.  I work with special education children and it would not work to use the fonts that you found for me, it would confuse them.

They were a bargain at that price!  I only wish I could use them.

Thanks again!

Adjusted points to 500

In this case it appears that you get what you pay for. There are some good d'Nealian fonts in the $50 price range, but nothing for free that I could find. Things are complicated by the fact that d'Nealian is a registered trademark, so the name can't be readily used to describe a font.

For bparnes:

I really appreciate all the help that you have been trying to give me.  I have also been looking under the names of "school slant" and "modern manuscript".  No luck with those either.  

I hope I may also be of help here.  I have been surfing, and I have found the following:

http://www.SchoolHouseFonts.com/samples.html

Both Zaner-Bloser(Set A) and D'Nealian(Set B) styles include 18 different fonts in printed and cursive types.

Includes upper and lower case accented characters and punctuation common to most Western European languages (Spanish, French, German, etc).

The printed and cursive fonts of each style are provided in eight variations: regular, bold, with arrows, with guidelines, with both arrows and guidelines, dotted (traceable), dotted with guidelines and dotted with arrows.

The connected cursive fonts, with and without guidelines, use the SigSoft Handwriter utility to reproduce the natural variations in letter shapes and connections that occur in real cursive handwriting.

$49.95 USD


http://www.startwrite.com/

StartWrite now offers four fonts: Manuscript (Zaner Bloser), Modern
Manuscript (D'Nealian), Italic (Getty-Dubay or Portland Italic) and
Cursive. You can easily teach printing or handwriting to your children
or students and include fun colored graphics or black and white
graphics that are ready to be colored by your students. StartWrite
makes learning more fun!



http://www.mastronardi.com/~efi/

EFI makes and sells D'Nealian ®-style, Zaner-Bloser ©-style, Harcourt Brace ®-style, Peterson Directed Handwriting ©-style, McDougal, Littell ©-style, Getty-Dubay Italic (TM), SSD, and Palmer style handwriting fonts. As of November, 1999, our fonts are in over 10,000 U.S. schools, and in several foreign countries.

Rachelle, it looks like you documented the fonts in the $50 price range that I mentioned.

For Rachelle:

Thank you for trying to help.  The sites that you suggested have been suggested by bparnes.  I know I am probably being a pain, but as a paraeducator my salary is not large.  I really want to be able to do more for the kids that I teach, but, I have to budget very carefully too.  I have kids of my own at home.  

I hope to find a site out there somewhere that has what I need for free or at least under $20.  

Thanks again for your time and effort.

Rachelle:

The sites that you suggested are very good, and bparnes has already let me know about them.  

Unfortunately as a paraeducator, they are a bit out of my price range.  I would really like be able to do more to help the kids that I teach.  

I will have to keep looking for now and maybe I will get lucky one of these times.  In the mean time I will save up.

Thanks for your help, it is appreciated!

Edited text of question.

Sorry about the double message!  I got kicked off the net and did not know if the first one went through or not.

:)

I do hope you find what you are loooking for.  I cited an indispensable resource here (in the topic area), with an EXHAUSTIVE list of links.  Perhaps if you have the time to spend going through them, one may be "the one."  Anyway, sorry I was redundant.  : )

Unfortunately, the answer to your question "Where can I find a good free d'nealian font to use with my second graders?" is the same answer as "Where can I find a good second grade teacher who will work for free?"

What we call a true d'nealian font (and not a d'nealian look-a-like) are licensed by and follow the Scott, Foresman and Co. guidelines. The Mountain Lake Software fonts, which as rachelle discovered are sold by many different websites, are the only ones that truly fit that bill.

Now that I have told you what you didn't want to hear (because $20 doesn't cut the $50 price tag), try e-bay and c-net shopping. Maybe they can help (although not today, I just checked). In the past have seen the Mountain Lake font packages for as low as $34.95 on c-net.

sorry - the above was mistakenly sent as a comment - when it is the answer

I believe that there is a solution that will better fit my needs out there somewhere.  Thank you for your input, and the time that you spent looking.

I think it's already been established that you're not likely to find a
true D'Nealian font that's free at any download site.  But there's a
nice clone called Penmanship Print -- you can d/l from mashy.com.
There's only the printed style (no cursive), but the up side is, it's
free.  There's another, called Trace Font for Kids (get it at
fontfreak.com).  

There is a demo of a program to teach kids cursive through fonts styled from D'Nealian at the bottom of this page it is free give it a shot......
http://www.signaturesoftware.com/website/p_school.html

The demo may be free, but it will cost $49.95 to purchase the D'Nealian font from those folks.

The font mentioned at this particular site is created to be a substitute for D'Nealian there is no purchase of just the fonts from these people, more along the lines of a program containing these fonts, I mentioned the demo because everybody is telling this TEACHER there is no way of trying to teach children cusive easier for free I know most of us have children now! We are here to help not deprive.

Why not pick up the phone and call some of the vendors of the true d'nealian fonts, and tell them you need them for work with special ed kids, and are paying out of your own pocket, and see if anyone will make a donation to you.

Can't hurt to try.

Betsy
http://www.eGarfield.com

I also have been trying to locate a free D'Nealian font for quite some time.  Locally, we have a store called The School Bag.  They sell many products for educators and I've called them recently to inquire about the font.  I've been told that they have a CD that has several fonts on it for $20.  They have mentioned that D'Nealian is on it, but I can't say for sure whether it is or not.  Many of the fonts that claim to be D'Nealian aren't.  Their phone number is 217/525-3939

Try this site for free handwriting fonts.

http://handwritingfonts.virtualave.net

[:o)

Comment accepted as answer

Hi!  

While I am not actually getting my font thru you, I am going to give you the points.  You have been very dilligent at looking and keeping on top of my request.

Four other co-workers and I are getting together and purchasing the D'nealian font package thru our district.  (The district finally got smart and decided t
To make it available with site licenses.

Thank you for all your hard work on my behalf!!

Rosebud98387

Well we tried to get you something for nothing. Sometimes you win, sometimes not...

Glad you have convinced the district to get you something you need. Best regards and thanks for closing this one out.

Pearson Learning's on-line catalog has the fonts available on disc for PC or Mac for $29.95.  Pearson Education publishes Scott Foresman books, including the D'Nealian line.  The web site where you can buy this on-line is: http://www.pearsonlearning.com/plearn/html/title_detail.cfm?title_id=658