A Suit Affecting the Parent-Child Relationship, usually called a SAPCR, is the Texas court case that decides who raises a child, how time with the child is divided, and who pays for the child’s needs. Filed under Title 5 of the Texas Family Code, a SAPCR can address conservatorship (custody), possession and access (visitation), child support, medical and dental support, paternity, and the termination of parental rights. If a dispute over a child’s care ends up in a Texas courtroom, a SAPCR is almost always the vehicle that gets it there.
A SAPCR can be filed on its own or as part of a divorce. Either way, the issues it resolves and the standards the court applies are the same.
Who Can File
Texas limits standing to people with a real connection to the child. The following can file at any time:
- A parent of the child.
- A guardian of the child’s person or estate.
- A governmental entity or the Department of Family and Protective Services.
- A man claiming to be the father, if he follows the procedures in Chapter 160 of the Family Code.
- A non-parent (other than a foster parent, relative, or designated caregiver placed by DFPS) who has had exclusive care, control, and possession of the child for at least six months, ending no more than 90 days before filing.
The non-parent standard tightened recently. Before September 1, 2025, you only needed “actual” care, control, and possession. The 89th Texas Legislature changed that to “exclusive” care, control, and possession, so shared or part-time caregiving no longer qualifies on its own.1State of Texas. Texas Family Code 102-003 – General Standing to File Suit The six months do not have to be continuous, but the court looks at where the child primarily lived during that time.
Grandparents and Other Relatives
Grandparents and relatives within the fourth degree of consanguinity have their own path, and it is narrower than most people assume. A grandparent can file an original suit for managing conservatorship only if the child’s present circumstances would significantly impair the child’s physical health or emotional development, or if both parents (or the surviving parent or current managing conservator) consent.2State of Texas. Texas Family Code 102-004 – Standing for Certain Relatives and Other Persons
Grandparents cannot file an original suit for possessory conservatorship, the lesser form of custody that typically includes visitation. They can intervene in a SAPCR someone else has already filed, again by showing significant impairment if either or both parents are appointed.2State of Texas. Texas Family Code 102-004 – Standing for Certain Relatives and Other Persons Simply disagreeing with how the parents are raising the child will not meet that standard.
Conservatorship: Who Decides and Where the Child Lives
Texas calls custody conservatorship. A SAPCR determines who has the legal authority to make major decisions about the child, including education, medical care, and where the child lives. Courts presume that appointing both parents as joint managing conservators serves the child’s best interest, though that presumption can be rebutted.
Joint managing conservatorship does not mean equal time. One parent is usually given the exclusive right to designate the child’s primary residence, often within a specific geographic area such as a particular county or contiguous counties. The other parent becomes the possessory conservator and has scheduled periods of possession. When family violence, neglect, or similar factors are present, the court can name one parent sole managing conservator and sharply restrict the other parent’s rights. The court can also appoint a guardian ad litem or an attorney ad litem to represent the child’s interests independently.
Possession and Access: The Visitation Schedule
Possession and access is the Texas term for visitation. When parents cannot agree, the court applies the Standard Possession Order, which the Family Code presumes is the minimum time the noncustodial parent should have unless evidence shows it would not serve the child’s best interest.3State of Texas. Texas Family Code 153-312 – Parents Who Reside 100 Miles or Less Apart
For a possessory conservator living within 100 miles of the child, the default includes the first, third, and fifth weekends of each month, a Thursday evening during the school year, alternating spring breaks, thirty days in the summer, and specified holidays that alternate by year and override the regular weekend rotation. Parents who live more than 100 miles apart follow a modified version with fewer but longer weekends. Parents are always free to agree on a different schedule, but if cooperation breaks down, the Standard Possession Order kicks in exactly as written.3State of Texas. Texas Family Code 153-312 – Parents Who Reside 100 Miles or Less Apart
The Standard Possession Order is not appropriate in every case. Courts can limit or supervise a parent’s time when there is a history of family violence, substance abuse, minimal prior contact with the child, or when the child is under three years old. Supervised possession requires a court-approved third party to be present during the visit.
Child Support and Medical Support
Texas calculates child support as a percentage of the paying parent’s monthly net resources:
- One child: 20%
- Two children: 25%
- Three children: 30%
- Four children: 35%
- Five children: 40%
- Six or more: not less than the amount for five children
These percentages apply when monthly net resources fall between $1,000 and the statutory cap, currently $11,700 per month.4State of Texas. Texas Family Code 154-125 – Application of Guidelines to Net Resources A lower set of percentages applies when net resources are under $1,000 per month. Net resources include wages, salary, self-employment income, retirement benefits, and disability benefits, minus taxes, Social Security contributions, and health insurance premiums for the child. The court can deviate from the guidelines when circumstances justify it, such as extraordinary medical expenses, the cost of travel for possession, or significant assets that do not generate regular income. For a parent earning above the cap, the court applies the percentages only to the capped amount and then decides whether the child’s proven needs require additional support.
Every SAPCR order must address health and dental coverage. The parent paying child support is typically also ordered to provide medical and dental insurance; when insurance isn’t available at a reasonable cost, the court can order cash medical support instead. “Reasonable cost” is capped at 9% of the paying parent’s annual net resources for health insurance and 1.5% for dental.4State of Texas. Texas Family Code 154-125 – Application of Guidelines to Net Resources Out-of-pocket medical expenses are generally split equally between both parents.
Establishing Paternity
A SAPCR is one of the primary ways to establish paternity in Texas. When a child is born to unmarried parents, no legal father exists until paternity is acknowledged voluntarily or established by court order. A man claiming to be the father can file a SAPCR under Chapter 160, and the court can order genetic testing.1State of Texas. Texas Family Code 102-003 – General Standing to File Suit Once paternity is established, the court can decide conservatorship, possession, and support in the same proceeding. Without a paternity determination, an unmarried father has no legal rights to custody or visitation, and the mother has no legal basis to compel child support.
Termination of Parental Rights
The most serious outcome a SAPCR can produce is the permanent termination of a parent’s legal relationship with a child. The standard of proof is clear and convincing evidence, higher than the preponderance standard used in most family matters, because termination is irreversible. The court must find both that specific statutory grounds exist and that termination is in the child’s best interest.
The Family Code lists more than twenty grounds for involuntary termination. Common ones include abandonment, endangerment (knowingly placing or allowing the child to remain in conditions that endanger the child, or engaging in conduct that does), failure to support the child according to ability for a one-year period ending within six months of filing, certain criminal convictions involving offenses against a child, and prior termination of rights to another child based on endangerment. Voluntary termination is also possible through an irrevocable affidavit of relinquishment, most often used in adoption.5State of Texas. Texas Family Code FAM 161-001 A parent facing involuntary termination has the right to appointed counsel if they cannot afford an attorney.
Emergency and Temporary Orders
When a child faces immediate danger, waiting for a full hearing isn’t an option. A petitioner can request a temporary restraining order at the start of a SAPCR, and the court can sign it the same day without notifying the other parent first. A TRO requires a sworn statement explaining why the emergency relief is necessary and why you cannot wait for a hearing. It can order a parent to stay away from the child, protect property, and prevent either party from taking actions that could harm the child’s safety, but it cannot address custody, child support, or removing a spouse from the home. A TRO lasts 14 days or until a temporary orders hearing, whichever comes first.
After the TRO expires, the court holds a temporary orders hearing where both sides present evidence. Temporary orders can address the full range of SAPCR issues on a short-term basis: who the child lives with, visitation, child support, use of property, and conduct restrictions on either parent. They remain in effect until the court issues a final order or modifies them. Unlike a TRO, temporary orders require notice to the other parent and an opportunity to be heard.
Mediation and Settlement
Texas courts can refer any SAPCR to mediation, either by agreement of the parents or on the judge’s own order. Mediation is not automatically mandatory statewide, but many judges strongly encourage or require it before setting a case for trial.6State of Texas. Texas Family Code 153-0071 – Alternate Dispute Resolution Procedures
An agreement reached in mediation can become binding and enforceable as a court order. The written agreement must include a prominently displayed statement that it is not subject to revocation, and both parties (and their attorneys, if present) must sign it. Once those requirements are met, either party can ask the court to enter judgment on the agreement, and the other side generally cannot back out.6State of Texas. Texas Family Code 153-0071 – Alternate Dispute Resolution Procedures
There is a safety valve. The court can refuse to enforce a mediated agreement if it finds that one party was a victim of family violence that impaired their ability to make decisions, or that the agreement would give unsupervised access to a person with a history of physical or sexual abuse, and that the agreement is not in the child’s best interest. A party can also object to mediation itself on family violence grounds; if the case still proceeds, the court must keep the parties in separate rooms with no face-to-face contact.
Changing a SAPCR Order Later
Life changes, and SAPCR orders can change with it, but Texas does not allow constant re-litigation. To modify conservatorship or possession, you must show the court that the change is in the child’s best interest and that at least one of the following is true:
- Circumstances of the child, a conservator, or another affected party have materially and substantially changed since the order was entered.
- The child is at least 12 years old and has told the judge in chambers which parent the child prefers to live with.
- The conservator with the exclusive right to designate the child’s residence has voluntarily given up primary care and possession for at least six months (military deployment does not count).
Courts have interpreted “material and substantial change” broadly enough to cover relocation, new stepparents, instability in the home, parental alienation, and shifts in the child’s needs as the child ages.7State of Texas. Texas Family Code 156-101 – Grounds for Modification of Order Establishing Conservatorship or Possession and Access
If you want to change which parent has the exclusive right to designate the child’s primary residence and it has been less than one year since the order was signed, the bar is higher. You must file a sworn affidavit alleging that the child’s present environment may endanger the child’s physical health or significantly impair emotional development, that the current primary conservator consents to the change, or that the current primary conservator has voluntarily given up care for at least six months.8State of Texas. Texas Family Code FAM 156-102 The court will not even set a hearing unless the affidavit meets this standard. After the first year, the general “material and substantial change” test applies.
Where to File
A SAPCR must be filed in the county where the child resides. If a Texas court has already made a custody determination, that court generally keeps continuing jurisdiction, which means any modification must go back to the same court. Texas has jurisdiction to decide a SAPCR when the child has lived in the state for at least six consecutive months immediately before filing (or since birth, if younger than six months). If the child recently moved to another state, Texas may still have jurisdiction if it was the child’s home state within the past six months and a parent still lives here.
Filing fees vary by county, and process server fees to deliver notice to the other party add to the upfront cost. If you cannot afford these fees, you can ask the court to waive them by filing an affidavit of inability to pay.