POV: It’s early May. School is wrapping up. You and your co-parent never hammered out a summer schedule. Maybe you figured you’d work it out later. Maybe one of you just never brought it up. Now your kid is asking where they’re spending June and July, and neither of you has a clear answer.
Here’s what most parents don’t realize: Texas already answered that question for you.
If you have a Standard Possession Order and neither parent gave formal notice of their summer schedule by the deadlines, the state’s default kicks in automatically. No negotiation. No input from you. Just a predetermined schedule which may or may not work for your family.
So what exactly is that default? Let’s break it down.
How It’s Supposed to Go?
The SPO gives both parents the ability to designate their own summer schedule, as long as they meet the deadlines.
How it works:
1. The possessory (non-primary) parent has until April 1st to designate when their 30 days will happen. The time must start after school lets out, and wrap up at least a week before school starts back up. It does not have to be one continuous block. It can be split into two separate periods.
2. The primary parent then has until April 15th to respond, and to designate one weekend (or two, if the 30-day period is broken up into two chunks) to have the child returned to their care during that summer period. If the possessory parent is the father, the primary parent cannot designate a weekend that overlaps with Father’s Day.
The same April 15th deadline applies if the primary parent wants to take over one weekend that the possessory parent would normally get, outside of the 30-day block (and again, not on Father’s Day, if applicable.)
If neither parent files notice by those dates, neither gets to make that choice. The default July schedule applies, full stop.
What If You Live More Than 100 Miles Apart?
Distance changes the math. If you and your co-parent live more than 100 miles apart, the summer block extends to 42 days instead of 30. The default dates shift too: June 15 through July 27.
The reasoning makes sense. When travel is involved, back-and-forth visits are harder on everyone, so the law builds in a longer stretch to reduce that strain. If the time is divided into separate periods, each chunk must be a minimum of seven days.
But What If The April Deadlines Have Passed?
What if it’s April 16th, or later? What happens now? Well, first of all, let’s see which schedule actually applies to you.
Step One: Pull Out Your Divorce Decree
Before anything else, check your actual court order. Don’t try to rely on you or your co-parent’s memory. If you’re on a week-on, week-off schedule, summer probably works the same way year-round. It’s possible that nothing changes during the summer, But if you have a Standard Possession Order (SPO), which is by far the most common arrangement for children three and older in Texas, summer is a different story.
The SPO is often described as an “every other weekend” setup. Over a full year, it works out to roughly a 70/30 split between the primary and possessory parent. That ratio only works because of how summer time is structured.
The Makeup Month: Why Summer Is Different
Under the Standard Possession Order, the possessory parent, meaning the non-primary parent, gets an automatic 30 days with the child each summer. Think of it as the built-in catch-up window, the time the court sets aside to bring that parent’s annual time closer to the 30 percent mark. Is it a perfect system? That’s a question for another day. But it’s the one Texas uses.
If no one takes action to designate specific summer dates, that 30-day block defaults to July 1st at 6:00 p.m. through July 31th at 6:00 p.m. The possessory parent takes the child for the entire month of July, and that’s that.
Can You Still Work Something Out Now?
If the April deadlines have already passed, you and your co-parent can still agree to a different arrangement on your own. Parents are allowed to make informal adjustments as long as both are on board. If you need a starting point for that conversation, our article on co-parenting communication and collaboration is a good place to start.
The catch: get it in writing. An email recap after a phone call is fine. A text thread works. Without something written down, any “agreement” is just one parent’s word against the other. If things go sideways later, the court falls back on whatever the order says, not what you both thought you agreed to.
Written confirmation is not a legal formality. It is for your protection.
The Bottom Line
Texas does not leave summer possession up to chance. If no one acts, the law acts for you. The default schedule exists because courts cannot let custody arrangements stay indefinitely unclear. It is designed to fill a gap. Unfortunately, it’s not designed to fit your individual family’s needs.
If you are reading this and April 1st has already passed, you are not alone. A lot of parents miss the deadline. The good news is that you and your co-parent can still work something out informally, as long as you both agree and get it in writing. What you cannot do at this point is unilaterally designate dates through the formal notice process. That window has closed.
For next year, the fix is simple: set a calendar reminder every March. Check your order, talk to your co-parent early, and designate your dates before April 1st. One reminder can save you from a summer schedule that nobody actually wanted.
If you are not sure what your order says, what the default means for your specific situation, or whether there is still something you can do, that is what we are here for.
Call us at 214-758-8681 or book a call today.
Resources
3. Texas Attorney General – Parenting Time Overview. https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/child-support/families-and-parenting/parenting-time-overview/parenting-time-schedule
4. Texas Family Code § 153.312 – Extended Summer Possession. https://codes.findlaw.com/tx/family-code/fam-sect-153-312/
5. TexasLawHelp.org – Custody and Visitation Guides. https://texaslawhelp.org/article/child-visitation-and-possession-orders