Texas Visitation Schedule: Standard Possession Order Rules

In Texas, the default visitation arrangement is called the Standard Possession Order, and it gives the non-primary parent the first, third, and fifth weekends of each month, Thursday evenings during the school year, alternating holidays, and 30 days in the summer. The Texas standard possession order schedule is set out in Chapter 153 of the Family Code, and courts start with it in every case unless the parents agree on something else or a judge finds a reason to deviate. There is a rebuttable presumption that this schedule provides reasonable minimum possession and is in the child’s best interest.¹

Texas uses the terms “managing conservator” for the parent with primary custody and “possessory conservator” for the other parent. The schedule below describes what the possessory conservator gets.

Weekends and Thursday Evenings

When both parents live within 100 miles of each other, the possessory conservator has the child on the first, third, and fifth weekends of every month.² Those weekends are counted from the first Friday of the month, so a month with five Fridays can produce back-to-back weekends of possession. Under the default times, pickup is 6:00 p.m. Friday and return is 6:00 p.m. Sunday.³

During the school year, there is also a Thursday evening visit, which keeps the possessory conservator in the child’s weekly routine rather than limiting contact to alternating weekends.⁴ When a regular weekend sits next to a school holiday or teacher in-service day, the weekend extends to absorb that extra day off.

Expanded Possession Times for Parents Within 50 Miles

Since 2021, Texas courts must apply expanded possession times when the possessory conservator lives within 50 miles of the child’s primary residence. Possession begins when school lets out rather than at 6:00 p.m., and ends when school resumes the following day rather than at 6:00 p.m. the evening before.⁵ A judge can only refuse to apply the expanded times if the evidence shows that doing so would not be in the child’s best interest.

In practice, a Friday-to-Sunday weekend becomes Thursday-school-dismissal to Monday-morning. The Thursday evening visit stretches from school dismissal to Friday morning. Over a year, the additional overnights add up to a meaningful amount of parenting time. Parents can opt out and keep the traditional 6:00 p.m. exchanges if both agree.⁶

Holidays and Special Days

Holidays override whatever the regular weekend rotation would otherwise provide. Texas divides the major holidays between parents on an even-year/odd-year rotation so each parent gets a fair share over time.⁷

Christmas break splits into two halves. In even-numbered years, the possessory conservator has the child from 6:00 p.m. on the last day of school before the break through noon on December 28. In odd-numbered years, that parent has noon on December 28 through 6:00 p.m. the day before school resumes. The managing conservator gets the opposite half each year.⁷

Thanksgiving goes to the possessory conservator in odd-numbered years, from 6:00 p.m. on the day school lets out through 6:00 p.m. the following Sunday. The managing conservator has that same period in even-numbered years.⁷ Spring break alternates between the parents the same way when they live within 100 miles.

A few additional days have their own rules, and they apply regardless of whose weekend it is:

Child’s birthday: whichever parent would not otherwise have the child that day gets a two-hour visit from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., picking up and returning the child at the other parent’s home.
Father’s Day: the father has the child from 6:00 p.m. the preceding Friday through 6:00 p.m. Sunday.
Mother’s Day: the mother has the same Friday-to-Sunday window.

Summer Possession

The possessory conservator gets 30 days of summer possession. To choose specific dates, send written notice to the other parent by April 1 of that year. The 30 days can be split into two blocks, but each block must be at least seven consecutive days, and the entire period must fall between the day after school ends and seven days before school starts again.²

Missing April 1 does not cost you the summer time. The statute automatically assigns July 1 at 6:00 p.m. through July 31 at 6:00 p.m. as your 30-day block.² The default works, but it removes flexibility. If you have vacation plans or work constraints, file the notice early.

When Parents Live More Than 100 Miles Apart

Distance changes the schedule. When the possessory conservator lives more than 100 miles from the child’s primary residence, the regular weekend rotation becomes impractical, so Texas offers a choice: keep the first, third, and fifth weekends, or switch to one weekend per month of the possessory conservator’s choosing.³ Many long-distance parents pick the single weekend because every visit involves significant travel.

Spring break works differently too. Within 100 miles, parents alternate it by year. Beyond 100 miles, the possessory conservator gets every spring break, every year, to compensate for the reduced weekend contact.³ Summer possession in the long-distance scenario is 42 days under the statute rather than 30.

Children Under Three

The Standard Possession Order does not automatically apply to a child under age three. For very young children, a judge must build a schedule tailored to the circumstances, weighing thirteen statutory factors including who has been the primary caregiver, the child’s developmental needs, how separation from either parent affects the child, and the proximity of the parents’ homes.⁸ Shorter and more frequent visits are common for infants because attachment at that age is built through consistency rather than extended time.

The court is also required to issue a prospective order that transitions the child to the Standard Possession Order on the child’s third birthday.⁸ You know in advance what the schedule becomes once the child ages into the standard framework.

When the Child Turns 12

At age 12, the child gains the right to speak with the judge in chambers about which parent the child would prefer to live with. The child does not get to decide, and the judge is not required to follow the preference. It can, however, support a request to modify the existing order.⁹

If the Other Parent Will Not Follow the Schedule

A signed possession order is a court order. If the other parent refuses to hand over the child during your scheduled time, the remedy is a motion to enforce filed with the court that issued the order. The motion must identify which specific provisions were violated, describe what the other parent did or failed to do, and state what relief you are asking for.

Enforcement can produce criminal contempt (jail time, with the combined total for all violations kept at six months or less to avoid triggering a jury-trial right) or civil contempt (usually a money judgment or make-up visitation). Courts can also award fines, community supervision, reimbursement for expenses you incurred trying to exercise the denied visitation, and additional parenting time to replace what was lost. The other parent must be personally served, and the hearing cannot take place until at least 10 days after service is complete. If the other parent fails to appear after being served, the court can issue a default judgment and a warrant.

Changing the Schedule Later

To modify a possession order, you must show that circumstances have materially and substantially changed since the order was signed, and that the change you want is in the child’s best interest.⁹ Texas law recognizes three grounds:

A material and substantial change affecting the child, a conservator, or another party since the date of the original order or the mediated settlement agreement it was based on.
The child is at least 12 and has told the judge in chambers which parent the child wants as primary conservator.
The primary conservator has voluntarily given up care and possession of the child to someone else for at least six months.

The six-month relinquishment ground has one important exception. A parent who temporarily hands off physical custody because of military deployment cannot be penalized for it; deployment does not count as voluntary relinquishment.⁹

1
State of Texas. Texas Family Code 153.252 – Rebuttable Presumption
2
State of Texas. Texas Family Code 153.312 – Parents Who Reside 100 Miles or Less Apart
3
Office of the Attorney General of Texas. Over 100 Miles Apart
4
Office of the Attorney General of Texas. 50 Miles Apart or Less
5
Texas Legislature Online. Texas Code HB 3203
6
State of Texas. Texas Family Code 153.317 – Alternative Beginning and Ending Possession Times
7
State of Texas. Texas Family Code 153.314 – Holiday Possession
8
State of Texas. Texas Family Code 153.254 – Child Under Three Years of Age
9
State of Texas. Texas Family Code 156.101 – Grounds for Modification