How Does Child Custody Work in Texas?

The vocabulary matters

Texas generally uses conservatorship for what people call custody, and possession and access for what people call visitation. Getting the terms straight makes court paperwork much easier to read.

• Joint managing conservators — both parents share rights and duties. This does not mean equal time.
• Sole managing conservator — one parent holds the significant decision-making rights, such as the primary right to decide the child's residence.
• Possessory conservator — the other parent, who has rights to possession and access under a schedule.

The starting presumption

Texas law presumes that appointing both parents as joint managing conservators is in the child's best interest. That presumption can be rebutted — for example, by a history of family violence, which Texas treats as a bar to joint managing conservatorship in defined circumstances.

Separately, there is a presumption that a parent, rather than a non-parent, should be appointed managing conservator.

Best interest is the standard

The best interest of the child is always the primary consideration in deciding conservatorship, possession and access. Texas courts weigh the child's needs, each parent's ability to meet them, stability, the parents' plans for the child, and any history of violence, abuse or neglect. Texas courts have long used a list of factors from *Holley v. Adams* as a guide, and the Family Code adds specific factors, including family violence.

Possession schedules

Texas has a standard possession order written into the Family Code. It is the schedule courts apply by default for a child three years or older, when it is workable and in the child's best interest. It sets out weekends, midweek periods, holidays and extended summer possession, with different terms depending on whether the parents live within 100 miles of each other.

Parents can agree to something different. An agreed parenting plan that a court approves is common and generally holds up better than a schedule imposed after a fight.

Can a child choose which parent to live with?

Not on their own. In Texas, when a child is 12 or older, the court must interview the child in chambers about the child's wishes as to conservatorship if a party applies for it. The judge hears the child; the judge still decides. There is no age at which a child's preference controls the outcome.

Changing an order later

Court orders about conservatorship and possession can be modified, but not simply because a parent changed their mind. A modification generally requires showing a material and substantial change in circumstances, and that the change is in the child's best interest.

When you may want an attorney

Uncomplicated agreed parenting plans are sometimes handled without counsel. The situations where legal help usually matters: one parent wants to move away with the child, there are allegations of violence, abuse or substance use, one parent is denying possession, an out-of-state or interstate order is involved, or the other parent has already hired a lawyer.