Texas Family Code 102.003: Standing for Parents and Non-Parents

Texas Family Code Section 102.003 sets out who has standing to file suit affecting the parent-child relationship, and the list is exclusive. If you don’t fall within one of the categories in subsections (a)(1) through (a)(14), the court has no jurisdiction to hear your case and will dismiss it. Standing is a threshold the judge evaluates before anything else, and the opposing party can challenge it at any point in the proceedings, including on appeal.¹

Who Has Automatic Standing

Several categories can file at any time based on status alone. No caregiving history, no residency, no waiting period. They include:

A parent, biological or adoptive.
The child, through a court-authorized representative (not necessarily a guardian ad litem).
A person who already holds custody or visitation under a court order from another state or country.
A guardian of the child’s person or estate.
The Department of Family and Protective Services and other governmental entities acting in an official capacity.
A licensed child-placing agency.
An alleged father, but only in the manner provided by Chapter 160 of the Family Code.

Standing for these parties flows from a legal relationship — parentage, a court order, or an official role — rather than from anything they need to prove about their involvement with the child.¹

Non-Parents With Exclusive Care, Control, and Possession

If you’re not a parent, guardian, or government entity, the most common path is Section 102.003(a)(9). It covers non-parents who have functioned as the child’s primary caregiver. The standard changed in 2025, and it matters.

From “Actual” to “Exclusive”

Before September 1, 2025, a non-parent needed “actual care, control, and possession” of the child for at least six months. HB 2350, passed in the 89th Legislative Session, replaced “actual” with “exclusive.”² Under the old standard, sharing a household with a parent while also doing substantial caretaking could be enough. Under the new one, you need to show you were the one in charge, not sharing authority with a biological parent who was also present and involved.

The amendment also expanded who cannot use this subsection. Previously only foster parents were routed to the separate 12-month provision. Now relatives and designated caregivers of children placed by DFPS are also excluded from (a)(9) and must proceed under (a)(11) instead.¹

The Six-Month and 90-Day Windows

You must have had exclusive care, control, and possession for at least six months, and that period must have ended no more than 90 days before you file.¹ The six months don’t have to be a single unbroken stretch. Subsection (b) tells the court to look at where the child principally resided during the relevant period. But the 90-day deadline is firm. Wait too long after the child leaves your care, and you lose standing under this subsection entirely.

Courts look at the substance of the caregiving, not just the calendar. Making day-to-day decisions about medical treatment, schooling, meals, and routines without needing a parent’s permission is the kind of role the statute contemplates. Simply living in the same house as the child, babysitting regularly, or providing financial help falls short.³

Foster Parents, DFPS Relatives, and Designated Caregivers

Section 102.003(a)(11) covers foster parents, relatives, and designated caregivers of a child placed in their home by DFPS. The core difference from (a)(9) is time: 12 months of placement, not six, ending no more than 90 days before you file.¹

The longer period reflects the state’s interest in giving biological parents a chance at reunification before foster caregivers gain independent standing. Two situations can strip this standing even after 12 months: the child has been returned to a parent under Section 263.403, or the child has been placed with a parent and DFPS has dismissed its suit under Section 263.401.

One carve-out is worth flagging. Subsection (c) allows a foster parent to file an adoption suit before hitting the 12-month mark, but only after the foster parent has been approved to adopt and the child is legally eligible for adoption.¹

Relatives When Both Parents Are Deceased

Section 102.003(a)(12) grants standing to a relative within the fourth degree of consanguinity when both parents are deceased at the time the petition is filed.¹ The fourth degree is broader than most people expect. It reaches grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles, great-grandparents, great-aunts, great-uncles, nieces, nephews, and first cousins.

No prior caregiving or residency with the child is required. The familial connection is enough, provided both parents have died. If only one parent is deceased, this subsection doesn’t apply, and a relative seeking standing would need to look elsewhere in the statute.

Adoption, Surrogacy, and Related Categories

A handful of remaining subsections cover narrower situations:

Under (a)(10), a person named as managing conservator in an affidavit of relinquishment, or someone who received written consent to adopt, has standing to file.
Under (a)(13), a person named as a prospective adoptive parent in a verified written statement under Section 102.0035 can file even before the child is born.
Under (a)(14), an intended parent under a gestational agreement meeting the requirements of Section 160.754 can file, subject to the additional conditions in subsection (d).

These categories exist because Texas recognizes that the path to parenthood isn’t always straightforward, and the standing statute has to account for adoption, surrogacy, and related arrangements.¹

What Section 102.003 Does Not Cover

A grandparent whose grandchild has two living parents cannot get standing under Section 102.003 unless the grandparent had exclusive care, control, and possession that meets (a)(9). For grandparents and relatives within the fourth degree of consanguinity who don’t fit any 102.003 category, the separate route is Section 102.004. It permits an original suit for managing conservatorship on satisfactory proof that the child’s present circumstances would significantly impair the child’s physical health or emotional development, or with the consent of both parents, the surviving parent, or the current managing conservator.⁴ That “significant impairment” bar is deliberately high, and it’s a different statute with different requirements — worth mentioning here only so you don’t assume Section 102.003 is the last word for a grandparent.

What Happens When Standing Is Challenged

Standing in a Texas SAPCR is a component of the court’s subject matter jurisdiction. That makes it fundamentally different from most procedural requirements. It can’t be waived, and the other side can raise it at any point, including on appeal. The usual vehicle is a plea to the jurisdiction, asking the court to dismiss because the person who filed had no right to do so.

When a plea to the jurisdiction is filed, the burden falls on the person who brought the suit to prove they fit within one of the statutory categories. If you filed under (a)(9), you’ll need evidence of your exclusive care, control, and possession for the required six months. Documentation helps: school enrollment forms listing you as the responsible adult, medical records showing you authorized treatment, and testimony from teachers, doctors, or neighbors about your role in the child’s daily life. If the court finds you can’t establish standing, it must dismiss the case, and any temporary orders it already entered — custody, visitation, support — become void because the court never had jurisdiction to issue them.

This is where cases fall apart most often. People assume that because they love the child and have been involved in the child’s life, they have standing. Texas law doesn’t work that way. Emotional bonds and good intentions don’t substitute for meeting the specific statutory criteria. Sorting out which subsection you fit under, and whether you can prove it, is the work to do before filing, not after.

1
State of Texas. Texas Family Code Section 102.003 – General Standing to File Suit
2
Texas Children’s Commission. 89th Regular Legislative Session Update
3
Texas Children’s Commission. Texas Child Welfare Law Bench Book – General Standing – Section: Exclusive Care, Control, and Possession
4
State of Texas. Texas Family Code Section 102.004 – Standing for Certain Relatives and Other Persons