What a Texas Parenting Plan Template Includes

When parents in Texas divorce or separate, they need a formal agreement that spells out how they’ll raise their child going forward. That agreement is called a parenting plan, and it covers everything from where the child will live to how the parents will make major decisions about the child’s upbringing. Many parents start the process using a parenting plan template, which provides a general framework they can adapt to fit their family’s specific needs.

Templates can be a useful starting point, but they can’t account for the details that make your family’s situation unique. Working with a family law attorney is the best way to ensure your plan reflects your child’s needs and meets the right legal standards. Here’s what you need to know about how parenting plan templates work in Texas and how a lawyer can help you refine your plan.

Essential Components of a Texas Custody Agreement

A thorough parenting plan covers far more than just where your child sleeps each night. Texas courts require these agreements to address decision-making rights, visitation schedules, support, and a range of other practical day-to-day arrangements. The more detail your plan includes for each of the following components, the less room there will be for future conflict.

Conservatorship and Decision-Making Rights

Texas law uses the term “conservatorship” rather than “custody” to describe each parent’s legal rights and responsibilities. Most plans involve joint managing conservatorship, meaning both parents share certain rights. However, even in joint custody arrangements, one parent may have the exclusive right to determine the child’s primary residence or make other big decisions. Your plan needs to specify which major decisions require both parents’ agreement and which each parent can make independently.

Possession Schedule and Visitation Details

Your parenting plan must establish a clear schedule for when each parent has possession of (visitation with) the child. Texas courts default to the standard possession order (SPO). This plan gives parents without primary physical custody the first, third, and fifth weekends of each month, Thursday evenings during the school year, and extended time in the summer. Parents can agree to different schedules as long as they serve the child’s best interest.

Holiday, Vacation, and Special Occasion Schedules

The SPO assigns most holidays on an alternating-year basis, with Thanksgiving in odd years and spring break in even years going to the noncustodial parent, and Christmas split over December 28. Your plan should also address birthdays, school breaks, and Mother’s and Father’s Day to prevent disputes.

Child Support Calculation and Payment Terms

Texas calculates child support using a statutory formula based on the paying parent’s net resources and the number of children covered by the order. Your parenting plan should specify the monthly amount, the payment method, and how you’ll divide expenses beyond base support, such as childcare costs.

Medical, Dental, and Health Insurance Provisions

Your plan needs to designate which parent carries the child on their health insurance policy and how you’ll split out-of-pocket medical, dental, and vision costs. It should also address who has the right to consent to non-emergency medical care and how each parent gets notified when the child receives care.

Education and Extracurricular Activities

Both parents generally retain the right to access school records and attend school events regardless of the possession schedule. Your plan should address how you’ll make decisions about enrollment, tutoring, and extracurricular activities, and how you’ll share any associated costs.

Communication and Information Sharing

A solid parenting plan sets clear expectations for how co-parents will communicate with each other and how each parent will stay in contact with the child during the other’s parenting time. It should also establish how parents will share information about the child’s health, schooling, and general welfare.

Customizing Your Parenting Plan for Your Family Situation

Texas’s SPO is designed with the presumption that it’s in the best interest of the child in many common situations. It even automatically adjusts based on how far apart the parents live. However, it doesn’t work for every family. 

Fortunately, parents can agree to customized schedules that better fit their circumstances, and courts will approve those customized plans as long as they serve the child’s best interest. For example, a 50/50 parenting time split works well for some families, but only if both parents live close enough to make frequent transitions practical. Parents with non-traditional work schedules might need plans built around rotating shifts or irregular hours rather than a fixed weekly pattern. Families with a history of domestic violence may require supervised visitation or restricted contact. And parents of children under three need schedules tailored to a young child’s developmental needs since the SPO’s best-interest presumption doesn’t apply to that age group.

How to File Your Parenting Plan with Texas Courts

If you and your co-parent agree on a customized parenting plan, the plan will only become legally enforceable when a judge signs it into a court order. Here’s how that process generally works in Texas:

• You and your attorneys draft a written parenting plan that addresses all necessary components.
• Your lawyer files the plan with the district court in the county where your child resides.
• You and your lawyers attend a hearing where the judge reviews the agreement and confirms that it meets the child’s best-interest standard.
• If the judge approves, you receive a signed court order incorporating the plan’s terms.

Modifying an Existing Texas Parenting Plan

Life changes, and Texas law allows parents to seek modifications when it does. To modify a parenting plan, the requesting parent must demonstrate a material and substantial change in circumstances since the original order was entered. This kind of change could be a job relocation, a significant shift in the child’s needs, a change in either parent’s living situation, or a parent’s remarriage. If the child is 12 or older, the court will also consider their preference. 

Parents who reach an agreement on new terms can file an agreed modification order without going to trial. However, disputed modifications go before a judge, who will apply the same best-interest standard they used in the original proceeding. Either way, a parenting plan modification will take effect only once the court signs a new order.

Contact the Custody Attorneys at Balekian Hayes, PLLC, Today

Your child’s future calls for more than a generic template. The attorneys at Balekian Hayes, PLLC, can work closely with you to develop a parenting plan that holds up in court and in real life. Contact us today to learn more in an initial consultation session.