We’ve shipped CivicPress 0.6.8, and this release is a good one, especially if you’re building or maintaining extensions of CivicPress for your organization. It brings meaningful improvements for developers and a handful of improved block controls that make building pages cleaner and more flexible.
Here’s what’s new.
For Developers: More Flexibility, Cleaner Architecture
This release puts more power in the hands of developers who are extending the CivicPress platform:
Smarter capability checks in the Admin Menu. CivicPress settings pages that only deal with global content updates (such as Default Content) are now accessible via the edit_theme_options capability rather than requiring manage_options. Site managers can access what they need without full administrator privileges. Licensing and other sensitive settings remain gated at manage_options.
Tablet breakpoint added. CivicPress now includes a dedicated tablet breakpoint, giving developers a target between mobile and desktop for responsive layout work.
Filterable form templates. Custom form templates included in CivicPress are now filterable, and additional form templates can be added in a child theme. This makes it much easier to extend or replace default form behavior for different use cases.
Variables in their own file. Sass variables have been separated into a dedicated file, so child themes can override them cleanly.
Design and Editor Improvements
Border Radius global presets. WordPress 6.9 introduced border radius size presets, and CivicPress now supports these using the pre-defined USWDS border-radius sizes.
Media Text Block: border radius and padding controls. The Media Text block now supports more intuitive border radius and padding controls, giving content editors more layout flexibility.
Table Block: typography and padding controls. Tables in CivicPress have more intuitive typography and padding controls, making it easier to present data in compelling ways. Padding will now control the padding within table cells, rather than the padding around the table block.
Why This Release Matters
CivicPress isn’t just a WordPress theme. It’s a compliance and modernization platform built for the public sector, integrating the US Web Design System, search.gov, and the Digital Analytics Program in a no-code environment designed for government agencies and the developers who serve them.
Every release moves the platform further in the same direction: making it easier for agencies to maintain USWDS-compliant, accessible, professionally designed websites without needing to write custom code for every edge case. Use CivicPress to modernize your public sector web site in days or weeks, not months or years.
Get the Update
If you’re running CivicPress, update to 0.6.8 through your WordPress dashboard or by downloading the latest release directly.
Not using CivicPress yet? Learn more about what it can do for your agency →
The full changelog for 0.6.8 and all previous releases is available at civicpress.us/changelog.