The Texas Standard Possession Order

Most parents first meet the standard possession order as pages of dense decree language about first, third, and fifth Fridays, noon on December 28, and written notice by April 1. None of that text was drafted for their case. It is copied, often word for word, from sections 153.251 through 153.317 of the Texas Family Code, which set out the default schedule used in most Texas custody orders.

Courts reach for it because the legislature told them to presume it works. Under section 153.252, there is a rebuttable presumption that the standard possession order "provides reasonable minimum possession of a child for a parent named as a possessory conservator or joint managing conservator" and that it is in the best interest of the child. It is a minimum, a floor rather than a ceiling, and the presumption is rebuttable, so a parent can put on evidence that a different schedule serves the child better. Section 153.251 states the policy behind it: Texas encourages "frequent contact between a child and each parent." The schedule is designed for a child three years of age or older.

One piece of vocabulary makes the rest readable. The parent following this schedule is the possessory conservator; the other parent, usually the one with the right to designate where the child lives, is the managing conservator. The guide to conservatorship in Texas explains how those roles are assigned. The schedule is also a fallback by design: section 153.311 requires every standard possession order to say the parents may have possession "at times mutually agreed to in advance," with the written terms controlling only when they cannot agree.

The weekend rhythm, plus Thursday nights

The backbone of the schedule sits in section 153.312, which applies when the possessory conservator lives 100 miles or less from the child. Weekends run all year: possession begins at 6 p.m. on the first, third, and fifth Friday of each month and ends at 6 p.m. the following Sunday. Only some months contain five Fridays, so the fifth weekend is an occasional bonus, and it always runs into the first weekend of the next month, two weekends in a row.

During the regular school term there is also a midweek period: every Thursday from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., unless the court finds that the Thursday visit is not in the child's best interest. Two hours is not much; the elections described below can stretch Thursday into an overnight.

Holidays alternate by year

Section 153.314 governs the major holidays, no matter how far apart the parents live, and its provisions supersede any weekend or Thursday period they collide with. Christmas vacation is split at noon on December 28: in even-numbered years the possessory conservator has the first half, from 6 p.m. on the day school dismisses until noon on the 28th, and the managing conservator has the second half through 6 p.m. on the day before school resumes. In odd-numbered years the halves swap. Thanksgiving goes whole: to the possessory conservator in odd-numbered years, from 6 p.m. on the day school dismisses until 6 p.m. the following Sunday, and to the managing conservator in even years.

Three smaller periods round out the list. The parent not otherwise in possession on the child's birthday gets the evening, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. A father who is a conservator has Father's Day weekend, from 6 p.m. the preceding Friday until 6 p.m. on Father's Day, and a mother who is a conservator has the mirror-image Mother's Day weekend. Spring break depends on distance: within 100 miles the possessory conservator has the whole break in even-numbered years, while a parent more than 100 miles away has it every year.

Summer is measured in blocks, not weekends

Within 100 miles, the possessory conservator has 30 days of summer possession. Written notice by April 1 lets that parent choose when: any 30 days between the day after school lets out and a week before it resumes, in one block or two periods of at least seven consecutive days each. Without the notice, the statute supplies the default: 30 consecutive days from 6 p.m. on July 1 to 6 p.m. on July 31.

The managing conservator gets counterweights. With written notice by April 15, that parent may have the child for any one weekend, beginning Friday at 6 p.m. and ending at 6 p.m. the following Sunday, during the possessory conservator's extended summer possession. With written notice by April 15, or 14 days' written notice on or after April 16, that parent may also designate one summer weekend when the possessory conservator's otherwise scheduled weekend possession will not take place, so long as the designated weekend does not interfere with the extended summer possession or with Father's Day if the possessory conservator is the father.

The 100-mile line

When the possessory conservator lives more than 100 miles from the child, section 153.313 replaces the weekend and summer terms. That parent may keep the first, third, and fifth weekends or elect one weekend per month of that parent's choosing, on 14 days' written or telephonic notice; the election itself must be made by written notice within 90 days after the parents begin living more than 100 miles apart. The over-100-mile schedule includes no Thursday period at all. In exchange, spring vacation comes every year and summer grows to 42 days, defaulting to June 15 at 6 p.m. through July 27 at 6 p.m. when no April 1 notice is given. The managing conservator's counterweights have their own terms at this distance: with written notice by April 15, that parent may take one weekend of the extended summer possession, or two nonconsecutive weekends if that period exceeds 30 days, and may designate 21 days, in up to two periods of at least seven consecutive days each, during which the possessory conservator may not have possession, provided those days do not interfere with the extended summer possession or with Father's Day if the possessory conservator is the father.

Expanded standard possession: the elections

The schedule above is the unmodified baseline. Section 153.317 lets a conservator elect alternative beginning and ending times keyed to the school day, and the court "shall" order the elected times unless it finds the election is not in the child's best interest. The headline elections: weekends can begin when school is dismissed on Friday and end when school resumes on Monday, and the Thursday period can run from school dismissal to school resumption on Friday, turning a two-hour visit into an overnight. Parallel elections attach school-dismissal start times to spring break, Christmas vacation, and Thanksgiving. Orders built on these times are commonly called expanded standard possession.

Timing matters. Under section 153.317(b), the election must be made before or at the time the possession order is rendered, in a written document filed with the court or an oral statement made in open court on the record. After the order is signed is too late.

For parents who live close together, the legislature flipped the default. Under section 153.3171, if the possessory conservator lives not more than 50 miles from the child's primary residence, the court shall alter the standard order as if the school-time elections had been made. The expanded times apply automatically unless that parent declines them in a filed document or on the record in open court, the court is restricting possession under section 153.004, or the court finds the expanded times are not in the child's best interest, for example because the parent did not frequently and continuously exercise parental rights and duties before the suit was filed.

What the order does not decide

A possession order is a calendar, nothing more. It does not allocate the rights and duties of conservatorship, such as who makes education or medical decisions; those are set separately in the same decree. It does not touch money: under section 153.138, appointing joint managing conservators does not limit the court's authority to order one of them to pay child support to the other. And the order does not enforce itself. When one parent stops honoring the schedule, the remedy is a motion to enforce, described in the guide to enforcing a visitation order.

The statute does handle logistics. Under section 153.316, the managing conservator surrenders the child at that parent's residence when a period begins, exchanges happen at school when a school-time election applies, and either parent may designate a competent adult to handle pickup and return.

When courts order something different

The presumption bends to reality. Section 153.253 tells the court to order a schedule "as similar as possible" to the standard one when a parent's work schedule, the child's year-round school calendar, or other special circumstances make the standard order unworkable or inappropriate. A firefighter on 24-hour shifts does not lose possession; the calendar is rebuilt around the job. Children under three get a tailored order under section 153.254, paired with a prospective order that takes effect on the third birthday and presumptively becomes the standard schedule. And section 153.255 lets the court approve an agreed schedule that varies from the standard order entirely.

The schedule is one piece of a larger case, and the rest of the Texas family law guides cover the pieces around it. The section numbers throughout this guide point to the official statute text, the same sourcing rule applied across the full guide library.