SPRING BREAK VISITATION AND ACCESS FOR TEXAS 2020
Spring Break is quickly approaching, and Texas parents with a custody order (whether from a divorce or other order) in place may want to know how this affects the normal possession schedule.
HOW SPRING BREAK WORKS UNDER A STANDARD POSSESSION ORDER
Assuming the parties have a Standard Possession Order in place with no modifications, then it reads as follows:
“The possessory conservator shall have possession in even-numbered years, beginning at 6 p.m. the day the child is dismissed from school for the school’s spring vacation and ending at 6 p.m. on the day before school resumes after that vacation, and the managing conservator shall have possession for the same period in odd-numbered years.”
As we are now in 2020, managing conservators (i.e., typically the party with the possession schedule) should be exercising Spring Break possession this year, absent a mutual agreement between the parties. It is important to remember that a holiday period of possession, including Spring Break, supersedes any regularly scheduled period of possession.
For example, if Spring Break is March 16 – March 20, 2020. This means that the Spring Break period of possession begins at 6:00 p.m. on March 13, 2020, and ends at 6:00 p.m. on Sunday, March 22, 2019, as school resumes on March 23, 2019. This Spring Break possession period encompasses both the second and third weekend of the month. The possessory parent does not get their normally scheduled third weekend. Spring Break replaces that weekend by operation of law.
OTHER WAYS SPRING BREAK CHANGES VISITATION IN TEXAS
If a possessory conservator usually has overnight possession of the children on Sunday nights and returns the children to school on Monday during regular possession (an expanded possession order), Spring Break changes that. The possession now ends at 6:00 p.m. on Sunday and regular periods of possession resume the next day.
