Child Custody in Texas

Conservatorship, not custody

Under Texas Family Code Chapter 153, a conservator is a parent, or less often another adult, with legal rights and duties toward the child. These include consenting to medical care, making education decisions, and other similar authority. A parent can be named a conservator without necessarily having the child in their home most of the time. The separate possession and access order sets the actual calendar. It lists which days, nights, and holidays each parent has the child physically present. Most Texas custody orders are really two documents working together: a conservatorship designation and a possession schedule. Reading only one of them gives an incomplete picture of what a parent actually has the right to do, and when.

Joint managing conservatorship is the starting presumption

Texas Family Code Section 153.131 creates a rebuttable presumption. Appointing both parents as joint managing conservators serves the child's best interest, unless there is a history of family violence. Joint managing conservatorship is about shared decision making rights, not necessarily equal time. A court can name both parents joint managing conservators while still giving one parent the exclusive right to designate the child's primary residence. A sole managing conservatorship gives one parent most or all of the decision making rights. Courts reserve it for cases where the presumption is overcome, most often by evidence of family violence, abuse, or neglect.

The standard possession order

When parents cannot agree on a schedule, Texas courts generally default to the standard possession order set out in Family Code Chapter 153, Subchapter F. In broad strokes, the non-primary parent typically gets the first, third, and fifth weekends of each month. They also get a Thursday evening period during the school term, an extended period in the summer, and alternating holidays. Many Texas courts also offer an expanded standard possession order. It lengthens the weekends and adds a Thursday overnight, for parents who live within the same county or a nearby one. The exact pickup times, return times, and mileage thresholds that trigger the expanded version are set out in the statute. Local county rules can affect them. Check the current statutory text at statutes.capitol.texas.gov before relying on a specific time or distance.

Children younger than three

The standard possession order in Chapter 153 assumes the child is at least three years old. For a younger child, Texas courts must consider a different framework. It is more flexible and built around the child's developmental needs, rather than the fixed weekend and holiday structure. Courts phase toward the standard order as the child gets older. The specific factors a court weighs for a child under three are fact dependent and are not restated in full here. A family law attorney or the statute itself is the reliable source for how that framework applies to a specific case.

When a child's preference matters

Texas Family Code Section 153.009 lets a child who is at least twelve years old talk to the judge in chambers. The child can say which parent they would prefer to have the exclusive right to designate their primary residence. The judge is required to consider that preference but is not bound by it. For a child younger than twelve, a judge has discretion to hear the child's preference but is not required to. This interview is about the primary residence decision, not a vote on the entire schedule.

Modifying a custody order later. A Texas conservatorship or possession order is not permanent by default. Texas Family Code Chapter 156 allows a parent to ask the court to modify it. This generally requires a showing that circumstances have materially and substantially changed since the last order, and that the change serves the child's best interest. A parent may want a different schedule because life changed: a move, a new work schedule, or a child getting older. That parent generally needs to file a modification action rather than simply start following a new arrangement informally. An unmodified court order remains enforceable until a judge changes it.

Texas also allows parents to file an agreed modification when both sides want the same change. This tends to move faster than a contested one. There is no dispute over whether the change serves the child's best interest, only paperwork to formalize what both parents already agreed to.