What does the Texas scheduleactually look like on a calendar?
The Standard Possession Order is written in paragraphs. Parents live it in weeks. Pick your distance, your year, and your school’s dates, and see the statutory default laid out month by month: every weekend, every Thursday, every holiday, and every handoff time.
This renders the statute. It is not your order, and it is not legal advice.
Step 1 of 2
How far apart do the two of you live?
Texas writes three different default schedules, and distance is what picks between them.
Measure the way your order does. If you're near the line, the distance rule in your order (or your county's practice) decides. Ask at your consultation.
Fair questions about the schedule.
What is the Standard Possession Order?
It is the possession schedule written into the Texas Family Code (Subchapter F of Chapter 153). In a suit there is a rebuttable presumption that it provides reasonable minimum possession for the parent named possessory conservator and that it is in the best interest of the child (§ 153.252). It is designed to apply to a child three years of age or older (§ 153.251(d)). Courts can and do order something different when the standard order is unworkable or not in the child’s best interest.
Does this calendar show my schedule?
No. It shows the statutory default for the inputs you chose. If you have a court order, that order controls, and it may differ from the default in ways this page cannot know. Read your order; if it says something different from this calendar, your order wins.
Why does the other parent sometimes get two weekends in a row?
Because the statute counts the first, third and fifth FRIDAY of each month, not "weekends" (§ 153.312(a)(1)). After a month with five Fridays, the fifth-Friday weekend and the next month’s first-Friday weekend land on consecutive Fridays. That is the statutory outcome, not an error.
What changes at 50 miles and at 100 miles?
Within 100 miles the schedule includes Thursday evenings during the school term, spring break in even-numbered years, and 30 days of summer (§ 153.312). Beyond 100 miles the Thursday period disappears, spring break goes to the other parent every year, and summer becomes 42 days (§ 153.313). Within 50 miles, Texas law treats the alternative school-time pickup and drop-off times as elected unless they were declined or the court found them not in the child’s best interest (§ 153.3171). The statute does not say how the miles are measured, so this tool asks you to pick the band rather than guessing.
Why are the school dates editable?
Because several periods are defined by school events rather than fixed dates: spring break, the Christmas vacation, and the Thanksgiving break all begin when the child is dismissed from school (§§ 153.312(b)(1), 153.314(1), 153.314(3)). "School" means the school the child is enrolled in, or the district where the child primarily resides (§ 153.3101). The dates are pre-filled with typical North Texas values so the page works immediately, and they are labelled as assumptions until you replace them with your district’s calendar.
Can we just agree to something else?
Yes. A standard possession order says the parties may have possession at times mutually agreed to in advance, and the specified schedule applies only in the absence of that agreement (§ 153.311). Many families run on an agreed schedule and keep the statutory terms as the fallback for the weeks they cannot agree.
This calendar renders the statutory default possession schedule in Subchapter F of Chapter 153 of the Texas Family Code for the inputs you chose. It is general information, not legal advice, not a prediction, and not a description of your court order. School dates are editable estimates, not any district’s official calendar. Courts routinely order schedules that differ from the statutory default, and orders can be written with alternative pickup and drop-off times. If you have an order, follow the order.
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