Texas Summer Possession

With the end of March upon us, I thought I'd write a reminder of the summer visitation schedule in the Texas Standard Possession Schedule. 

For the non-custodial parent (the parent who doesn't designate the child's residence), April 1 is the deadline to designate your thirty days of extended summer possession. If you designate your possession by April 1, you can pick almost any time during the summer to exercise your extended summer visitation in a continuous 30 days or in two, two week possession periods. If you do not designate by April 1, then the non-custodial parent defaults to July 1 through July 31. 

The custodial parent has between April 2 and April 15 to designate one weekend within the non-custodial parent's 30 days of possession when the custodial parent can have possession of the child. If the parent does not give any notice, then the non-custodial parent will have 30 days of uninterrupted possession. 

By giving notice by April 15 (or with 14 days notice), the custodial parent can also exercise an additional weekend of possession that would normally belong to the non-custodial parent. This allows the non-custodial parent to exercise an extended period of possession by combining it with the custodial parent's other normal periods of possession. 

So parents thinking about summer vacation plans should keep in mind the April notice deadlines to avoid any issues.