This post explains the default visitation schedule for a Texas parent who lives within 50 miles of the other parent, doesn’t have primary custody of the child, and doesn’t otherwise have any court-ordered restrictions on their visitation rights.
In Texas, what people think of as “visitation” is called “possession,” so a “possession order” is simply a court order setting out the child’s visitation schedule with both parents. The default visitation schedule in Texas is called the standard possession order (“SPO”). The SPO describes the default periods of time a child is with the noncustodial parent (i.e., the parent with whom the child doesn’t live the majority of the time). The SPO is a default schedule because it’s the controlling schedule unless the court or the parties modify it. It is generally assumed that the SPO is in the child’s best interests and provides the noncustodial parent with reasonable visitation. Going forward, I will refer to the noncustodial parent as the “SPO parent.”
What the prospective SPO parent often doesn’t understand about the SPO is that it’s a fantastic schedule. A parent with standard SPO visitation will see their child about 40 percent of the time in any given year, give or take some days here or there. Over shorter periods, the SPO parent sometimes has the child over 50 percent of the time. In one concrete example later on, you’ll see a 5-week stretch when the SPO parent has the child for over 60 percent of that time period. This is a lot of visitation, so a parent going through a divorce should not agonize over the amount of time they’ll get with their child under the SPO. Think of it this way. By definition, the SPO parent cannot have more than 50 percent of the time with the child for a year because that parent does not have primary custody. Thus, any percentage of time close to 50 percent is a lot.
Of course, it’s one thing to read how much time the SPO provides. It’s another thing to see it:
This is what visitation looks like for an SPO father living in Klein ISD for 2024. The visitation periods are highlighted in yellow. Click here to see a table breaking out our hypothetical SPO parent’s visitation days by month. If you count up all the days, there are 185 days on which the SPO parent will have at least some visitation with their child (note: some of the days are ½ days when the child will be with one parent for only part of the day).
One reason I’ve displayed a calendar showing SPO visitation before describing it is to visually show the amount of visitation the SPO parent receives. (There is a lot of yellow on the calendar!) The other reason is so that you have something to look at and follow along with as I describe it to you. It’s much easier to understand the SPO’s default visitation schedule if you can see it and refer to it, rather than read about it. So, now that you can see the calendar, and now that you have it to follow along, let’s describe it. Here are the default periods of visitation for an SPO parent who lives 50 miles or closer to the other parent:
Weekends
- The 1st, 3rd, & 5th weekends of every month of the year.
- During the school year, weekends start when school is dismissed for the week, and they end when school resumes the following week.
- During the school year, weekends include any Friday or Monday the child has off from school.
- During the summer, weekends begin at 6 p.m. on Friday and end at 6 p.m. on Sunday.
Thursdays
- During the school year, the SPO parent has the child every Thursday, starting after school on Thursday and ending when school resumes on Friday morning.
Spring Break (even-numbered years)
- All of spring break on even numbered years.
- Spring break visitation starts when school is dismissed for the break and ends when school resumes on Monday morning after the break is over.
A snapshot of March 2024 reveals what SPO visitation looks like in practice during the school year when the SPO parent gets spring break:
Remember: this calendar lays out the periods of possession for a noncustodial parent who lives within 50 miles of the other parent in Klein ISD just outside of Houston. If you’re in a different school district, then you might have a different spring break. Irrespective of any district-to-district differences, however, the point remains the same: this concrete 5-week SPO snapshot shows that the SPO parent often receives more time than the custodial parent. In the above example, out of 39 possible days, 19 are entirely with the noncustodial parent (unless the child is in school), while 9 are partly with the noncustodial parent custody (either before or after school and overnight, but not both).
Admittedly, March 2024 is unusual. Spring break is included because it’s an even year. Further, this particular March has a 5th weekend, which typically occurs only 2 or 3 times a year. A 5th weekend not only provides additional visitation for the month in which it falls, but also gives the SPO parent back-to-back weekends because the SPO parent always gets the 1st weekend of the next month.
So, yes, this snapshot in time is somewhat atypical. Nevertheless, this SPO calendar excerpt proves how little there is to worry about if you’re the parent with the SPO. If you’re that parent, you’ll get ample visitation with your child, sometimes a lot more than the parent who has primary custody!
Having covered weekends, having covered Thursdays during the school year, and having covered spring break, lets describe the remaining SPO visitation periods:
Thanksgiving
- Every Thanksgiving break in odd-numbered years, starting when the child gets out of school and ending when the child goes back when the break is over.
Christmas
- Even-numbered years. The SPO parent has the child from the beginning of Christmas break (when school gets out) until noon on December 28.
- Odd-numbered years. The SPO parent has the child from noon on December 28 until the end of the break when the child goes back to school.
Summers
- Ordinary Summer Visitation. The SPO parent has the child on the 1st, 3rd, & 5th weekends of every month, beginning at 6 p.m. on Fridays and ending at 6 p.m. on Sundays.
- Extended Summer Visitation. By default, the SPO parent also has the child for 30 days of extended summer visitation from July 1 until July 31. With written notice by April 1, the SPO parent may modify this schedule in one of two ways:
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- First, the SPO parent can select a different 30-day block.
- Second, the SPO parent can split the 30-days into 2 separate periods that are each at least 7 days long (e.g., 15 + 15, or 18 + 12, but not 6 + 24).[1]
- Weekend Carve Outs for the non-SPO Parent. The custodial parent can have one weekend of the SPO parent’s ordinary summer visitation with two-weeks written notice.[2] And with written notice by April 15, the custodial parent can have one weekend of the SPO parent’s extended summer visitation.
Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, Birthdays
- Father’s Day. Regardless of the usual schedule, Dads have the whole weekend, which begins at 6 p.m. on Friday and ends at 8 a.m. on Monday.
- Mother’s Day. Regardless of the usual schedule, Moms have the whole weekend, which starts when school is over on Friday and ends when the child goes to school on Monday.
- Child’s Birthday: The parent without the child under the SPO on the child’s birthday is allowed visitation with the child from 6 p.m. until 8 p.m.
Final Thoughts & Caveats
The SPO parent who lives 50 miles or less from their child may opt out of some of the beginning and end times described in this post. Furthermore, if you live between 50-100 miles from your child, you must opt in to some of the beginning and end times described in this post—they are still available to you, but they are not your default arrangement, unlike the parent who lives within 50 miles. And if you live more than 100 miles from your child, there are some undiscussed differences in your default visitation schedule. It is beyond the scope of this post to go into each of these scenarios.
In addition, the accompanying highlighted calendar might differ from the visitation you have or the visitation you will receive under the SPO. Why? You might be in a different school district with different school holidays or in-service days. You might be a Mom instead of a Dad, in which case you would not have the weekend of June 14-17. You might choose a different 30-day visitation period or periods than the customary dates of July 1 through July 31 on the highlighted calendar. You, you and the other parent, or the court might have modified the SPO based on the unique circumstances of your case and the best interest of your child. It is also beyond the scope of this post to discuss these other scenarios that might cause your SPO to differ from the one represented here.
To reiterate, this post describes the SPO default schedule promulgated in Texas Family Code for any parent who lives close to the other parent and their child. More importantly, this post allows the reader to see what a balanced, thoughtful schedule it is, one that provides both parents with continuing and frequent contact with their children, which is the fundamental goal of any visitation schedule in Texas.
There’s a lot to digest in this post, so I’ll will end with a tl;dr summary of it:
TL; DR
A noncustodial parent who lives within 50 miles of the other has the following default visitation with the child:
- 1st/3rd/5th weekends of every month, including Friday/Monday holidays during the school year, plus every Thursday during the school year.
- Spring break in even years.
- Xmas break in even years from when school ends until noon on December 28.
- Xmas break in odd years from noon on December 28 until school resumes.
- Thanksgiving break in odd years.
- The weekend of Father’s Day or Mother’s Day (whichever applies to you).
- Visitation on the child’s birthday from 6-8 p.m. for the parent who doesn’t already have the child on that day.
- For summers, it’s 7/1-7/31 OR 30 days at a different time OR 30 days divided up into 2 different time blocks of at least 7 days each.
- With timely written notice, the other parent can have (a) one of the weekends during your 30-day summer block of time and (b) one other summer weekend during the ordinary 1/3/5 weekend schedule.
[1] Any extended summer visitation period must end 7 days before the next school year starts.
[2] This weekend cannot be the weekend immediately before the next school year begins.