What is the “Standard Possession Order” in Texas?

In the Texas Family Code, the Texas Legislature has told judges in contested custody cases to select one of the children’s parents to have the “exclusive right to designate the primary residence of the child”. See Texas Family Code §153.134(b)(1).  This means that (in most cases) the judge has to pick one of the parents to have “primary custody”.  For more detail on what that does (and doesn’t) mean, please read my May 6, 2026 blog post titled “What Does ‘Primary Custody’ Mean in Texas”.  But, for purposes of this post, it’s enough to say that the parent with “primary custody” will have physical possession of the children the majority of the time.

How much time will the other parent get with the children?  Ultimately, it is up to whatever the judge determines is in the children’s best interest but, here too, the Family Code has some instructions for the judge.  Family Code §153.252 says that in a custody case, there is:

“a rebuttable presumption that the standard possession order:

(1)        provides reasonable minimum possession of a child for a parent named as a possessory conservator or joint managing conservator; and

(2)        is in the best interest of the child.”    

In other words, the Legislature has told the judges in custody cases that, after they choose which parent will have “primary custody”, they should award the other parent the “standard possession order” (unless the other parent can make a compelling case for something more/different).

So, what is the Standard Possession Order?  To start with, there are two variations of it: 1) the Standard Possession Order (duh), and 2) the Expanded Standard Possession Order.  I’ll outline the Expanded Standard Possession Order below, but let’s start out with the basic Standard Possession Order.

Standard Possession Order

            What follows is not intended to be a detailed explication of the full Standard Possession Order (often referred to as “SPO” for short) because there are lots of moving parts to it.  Is the child under three years of age?  Different rules may apply.  Do the parents live more than 100 miles away from each other?  Different rules almost certainly will apply.  But, with that said, in very broad strokes, the basic Standard Possession Order gives the “non-primary” parent possession of the child on the following schedule:

1.      On the weekends starting on the 1st, 3rd and 5th (if there is one) Friday of each month, beginning at 6:00 pm on Friday, and ending at 6:00 pm on Sunday;

2.      On each Thursday during the school year, beginning at 6:00 pm and ending at 8:00 pm;

3.      an extended possession period of 30 days during the summer; and

4.      the following holidays/special occasions:

a.      half of the Christmas school holiday each year;

b.     the Thanksgiving school holiday every other year,

c.      Spring Break every other year;

d.     a two-hour visit on the child’s birthday; and

e.      either Mother’s Day or Father’s Day weekend (depending on which parent has the SPO) each year.

There are some details that glosses over, though.  For instance, if one of the SPO weekends is followed by a Monday that is a school holiday, then (instead of ending on Sunday at 6:00 pm) the weekend will continue until 6:00 pm on Monday.  So, the SPO schedule is going to be significantly influenced by the child’s school’s calendar (or, even if the child is not actually in school, then the calendar for the public school district of his primary residence). 

Expanded Standard Possession Order

            When the judge gives a parent the SPO schedule, the Family Code says that parent can “elect” to turn the SPO into the Expanded Standard Possession Order (“ESPO”).  See Texas Family Code §153.317.  After the parent makes this election, the Family Code says the judge must allow them to have the ESPO, unless the Court makes a specifid determination that the ESPO would not be in the child’s best interest for some reason.

So, how does the ESPO differ from the basic SPO?  In general:

1.      instead of ending on Sundays at 6:00 pm, the weekend visits continue until school starts on Monday morning; and

2.      instead of school-year Thursday visits being limited to two hours, these are changed into overnight visits ending when the child’s school resumes on Friday.

There are other, smaller, changes too (such as the weekends beginning when school lets out on Friday, rather than at 6:00 pm).  But, in the big picture, the ESPO gives the parent living under it a LOT more nights with their child.  How many more?  Hard to say exactly - as I mentioned before, the schedule depends somewhat on the child’s school calendar.  Additionally, both the SPO and the ESPO give both parents the ability to do some picking-and-choosing about what days they want during the summer vacation.  So, we can only be approximate, but I took a look at next year’s calendar (August, 2026 through July, 2027) for the Allen Independent School District, and it looks like:

1.      a parent with the basic SPO will have possession of the child for 85 nights out of that year; and

2.      a parent with the ESPO will have possession of the child for 139 nights out of that year.

That’s a HUGE difference.  On the “Documents” page of this site, you can download a calendar I created illustrating these two schedules. But, in terms of percentage of nights, a parent with the basic SPO will have the child 23% of nights, while a parent with the ESPO will have possession of the child 38% of nights.  For a little perspective, I should add that, in other years, both the SPO and ESPO schedules would be a little more favorable (in the year I was looking at, neither of them got Spring Break or Thanksgiving…..so it was more lopsided in favor of the primary parent than “normal”).  So, in some years, the ESPO will be not quite a 50/50 schedule, but will be living in the same ZIP code. 

            Speaking of a 50/50 schedule, back in the 2021 session of the Texas Legislature, there was a bill put forward to make a 50/50 schedule the default under the Family Code.  I thought for a while that the bill was going to pass, but it ended up dying.  Instead, the Legislature passed two bills that, essentially (though there are some caveats to this), say that if the parents live within 50 miles of each other, the non-primary parent will automatically get the ESPO.  But, with the Family Code written the way it is, it is still important that, in case the judge does not award you primary custody, you have properly “elected” for the ESPO.  The Family Code says that can be done “before or at the time of the rendition of a possession order”.  See Texas Family Code §153.317(b).  After the possession order has been issued is too late.  So, best thing is to include it in your petition or counterpetition as an alternative (essentially, “Hey, Judge, please give me primary custody, but if you don’t, please give me the ESPO”).