Texas Standard Possession Order: How Custody Time Works

When Texas parents separate, one of the first questions is simple to ask and hard to answer: when do I actually see my kids? Texas answers that question with a default schedule called the Standard Possession Order, or SPO. It appears in Chapter 153 of the Texas Family Code, and courts in Harris County and across the state start from it in most cases involving children age three and older.

Understanding how the SPO works before your first hearing makes the whole process less disorienting. It also helps you see which parts of a schedule are genuinely negotiable and which parts a judge is unlikely to move without a real reason.

Conservatorship comes first, possession comes second

Texas separates two ideas that people often blend together. Conservatorship is about decision-making rights and duties: who can consent to medical treatment, who makes education decisions, who holds the right to receive child support. Possession and access is about the calendar, meaning who has the children on which days.

The Family Code presumes that appointing both parents as joint managing conservators is in a child's best interest. Joint managing conservatorship does not mean equal time. It means both parents share rights and duties, while one parent usually holds the exclusive right to designate the child's primary residence, often within a specified geographic area such as Harris County and contiguous counties.

The standard schedule when parents live within 100 miles

If the parents live 100 miles or less apart, the SPO gives the parent who does not have primary possession:

• The first, third, and fifth weekends of each month
• A Thursday evening period during the school year
• Alternating major holidays, with Thanksgiving and the Christmas break split on a rotating basis
• An extended summer period of 30 days
• Father's Day or Mother's Day weekend, depending on the parent

Weekends are counted by the calendar, not by rotation, which is why the fifth weekend exists and why two weekends in a row can occasionally fall to the same parent. Holidays override the regular weekend schedule, so a holiday period does not get made up later unless the order says so.

The expanded standard possession order

Texas law allows the noncustodial parent to elect an expanded version of the schedule. Instead of picking up Friday evening and returning Sunday evening, that parent picks up when school lets out on Friday and returns when school resumes Monday morning. The Thursday period can likewise run from the end of school Thursday to the start of school Friday.

The expanded election matters more than it sounds. It converts several separate exchanges into school drop-offs, which reduces the number of times parents have to meet, and it adds meaningful overnight time across a year. A parent generally elects expanded possession at the time the order is rendered, so raising it early is important.

When parents live more than 100 miles apart

Distance changes the shape of the schedule. Beyond 100 miles, the noncustodial parent may keep the first, third, and fifth weekend pattern or elect one weekend per month with advance notice. Summer possession expands to 42 days, and every spring break goes to the noncustodial parent rather than alternating. The Thursday evening period drops out, because midweek travel is not realistic.

Because the distance rule turns on where the parents actually live, a planned move can change a schedule that has worked for years. Relocation disputes are among the most contested issues in Texas family law cases, and geographic restrictions written into the original order are often the deciding factor.

Children under three

The Family Code does not apply the standard schedule automatically to children under…