Standard Possession Order: Schedules, Distance, and Enforcement

The Texas Standard Possession Order is the default custody schedule Texas courts apply when parents separate, and state law presumes it is in every child’s best interest.¹ It sets the minimum time the noncustodial parent (the possessory conservator) spends with the child, while the parent the child primarily lives with is the managing conservator. The schedule is built on Texas’s public policy of frequent and continuing contact with both parents,² and the specific hours shift depending on how far apart the two homes are.

The Schedule When Parents Live Within 100 Miles

If 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. Weekend possession starts at 6:00 p.m. Friday and ends at 6:00 p.m. Sunday.³ “First, third, and fifth” means counting Fridays from the start of the month, not calendar weeks. Not every month has a fifth Friday, so the number of weekends varies.

During the school year, the possessory conservator also has a Thursday evening visit from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.³ A judge can drop the midweek visit if it would not serve the child’s best interest, but that is the exception.

Expanded Times Within 50 Miles

Since September 2021, Texas courts have been required to automatically apply expanded pickup and drop-off times when the possessory conservator lives within 50 miles of the child’s primary residence.⁴ Under the expanded version:

Weekend possession begins when school lets out on Friday and ends when school resumes Monday morning.
The Thursday visit starts at school dismissal on Thursday and runs until school starts Friday morning, converting an evening window into an overnight.

A parent within 50 miles can opt out of any or all of these expanded times by filing a written statement with the court or stating the preference on the record.⁴ A court can also decline to apply the expanded schedule if the distance makes it impractical, if the possessory conservator was not actively involved in the child’s life before the case was filed, or for other reasons the court finds relevant. Parents who live between 50 and 100 miles apart do not get the expanded times automatically but can request them by agreement or motion.

The Schedule When Parents Live More Than 100 Miles Apart

Once the parents are more than 100 miles apart, every-other-weekend travel stops making sense. The possessory conservator chooses between keeping the first, third, and fifth weekend rotation or switching to one weekend per month at their choice. If they pick the one-weekend-per-month option, they have to elect it in writing within 90 days after the parents begin living more than 100 miles apart and give the other parent 14 days’ notice before each chosen weekend.⁵

The Thursday midweek visit drops out entirely at this distance. To offset the lost weekly time, the long-distance parent receives the entire spring break every year and a longer summer block.⁵

Holidays, Spring Break, and Summer

Holiday possession overrides the regular weekend and Thursday rotation. The SPO divides major holidays on an alternating even-year and odd-year basis. The possessory conservator takes Thanksgiving in odd-numbered years and Christmas in even-numbered years, then the assignments flip the following year. The Christmas period itself splits into two halves so the child spends part of the break with each parent.

Spring Break

For parents living within 100 miles, spring break alternates. The possessory conservator has the child in even-numbered years, and the managing conservator has that same period in odd-numbered years, running from 6:00 p.m. on the day school dismisses through 6:00 p.m. the day before school resumes.³ For parents over 100 miles apart, the possessory conservator gets the entire spring break every year.⁵

Summer

Summer is where the distance brackets diverge the most. A possessory conservator within 100 miles gets 30 days of summer possession. A possessory conservator over 100 miles away gets 42 days.⁵ To pick specific dates, the possessory conservator must give the managing conservator written notice by April 1, and the block can be split into two periods of at least seven consecutive days each.

Miss the April 1 deadline and a default summer period applies automatically. For parents within 100 miles, the default is July 1 through July 31. For parents over 100 miles apart, it is June 15 through July 27. The managing conservator can also reclaim one weekend during the possessory conservator’s summer block by giving written notice by April 15, but the managing conservator handles pickup and return.³ Put April 1 and April 15 on your calendar; that pair is where most families stumble.

Children Under Three

The SPO presumption does not automatically apply to children younger than three. The court instead designs a schedule based on the child’s developmental needs, weighing 13 statutory factors including which parent handled most day-to-day care, the child’s attachment to each parent, and whether overnights would disrupt the child’s routine.⁶ Judges have wide discretion here, and in practice many phase overnights in gradually.

The order must also include a prospective provision that converts to the standard schedule on the child’s third birthday.⁶ If you are working on a case involving a child under three, expect the current schedule to look different from the versions above until that birthday.

Changing the Order After It Is Signed

The SPO can be modified, but the bar is real. You generally have to show the court that circumstances have materially and substantially changed since the order was signed and that the modification would serve the child’s best interest.⁷ A job transfer, a relocation, or a significant shift in the child’s needs can qualify. Ordinary inconvenience will not.

Two additional paths skip the material-and-substantial-change requirement. If the child is at least 12 and tells the judge in chambers which parent they want to live with primarily, that alone can support a modification.⁷ And if the managing conservator has voluntarily given up primary care of the child to someone else for at least six months, the other parent can seek a change without proving changed circumstances. The court still has to find the modification is in the child’s best interest.

What Happens if the Other Parent Ignores the Order

A signed possession order is enforceable. If one parent consistently violates the schedule, the other can file a motion to enforce, and the court can hold the violating parent in contempt. Contempt carries a fine of up to $500 per violation and confinement in county jail for up to six months, or both.⁸ Courts can also award attorney’s fees and costs to the parent who had to bring the motion. Where violations repeat, cumulative jail exposure can reach 18 months.

Enforcement runs both directions. A managing conservator who refuses to hand the child over during the possessory conservator’s scheduled time is in violation, and so is a possessory conservator who refuses to return the child. Keep a certified copy of the order with you at exchanges. If a dispute arises at the door, that document is the fastest way to resolve it.

1
State of Texas. Texas Family Code Section 153-252 – Rebuttable Presumption
2
State of Texas. Texas Family Code Section 153-001 – Public Policy
3
State of Texas. Texas Family Code Section 153-312 – Parents Who Reside 100 Miles or Less Apart
4
State of Texas. Texas Family Code Section 153-3171 – Beginning and Ending Possession Times for Parents Who Reside 50 Miles or Less Apart
5
State of Texas. Texas Family Code Section 153-313 – Parents Who Reside Over 100 Miles Apart
6
State of Texas. Texas Family Code FAM 153-254
7
State of Texas. Texas Family Code Section 156-101 – Grounds for Modification of Order Establishing Conservatorship or Possession and Access
8
Justia Law. Texas Government Code Chapter 21 – General Provisions