Custody schedule

The Standard Possession Order (1st / 3rd / 5th weekends) schedule

Texas's statutory default: the first, third, and fifth weekends of each month with the non-primary parent, plus Thursday evenings and a long summer block.

86/14

overnight split

night cycle

313

nights a year (parent A)

The rotation

A = one parent, B = the other. Each cell is one overnight. This rotation divides regular school-year overnights 86/14 — about 313 and 52 nights a year.
Week	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun
1	A	A	A	A	B	B	A
2	A	A	A	A	A	A	A
3	A	A	A	A	B	B	A
4	A	A	A	A	A	A	A

About that numberThis figure is the school-year weekend rotation only. The SPO's summer block (30 days) and alternating holidays push the real annual share to roughly 25% — the number most Texas lawyers quote. Electing the Expanded Standard Possession Order, which is the default when the non-primary parent lives within 50 miles, adds Thursday overnights and runs weekends Thursday to Monday, moving it toward 45%.

Who it tends to suit

Texas families — this is the schedule the Family Code hands you if you don't agree on something else.

The honest trade-off

Its advantage is that it's the default: a court will order it without argument, and every Texas family lawyer knows it cold. Counting weekends by ordinal rather than alternating means the non-primary parent occasionally gets two weekends in a row (the fifth, then the first). The Expanded Standard Possession Order stretches each period from Thursday to Monday, moving it toward 45/55.

Exchanges

Texas plans usually run possession from the time school lets out to the time school resumes, so the parents never meet.

Also called: SPO, Texas standard possession, first third fifth.

Build a plan with this schedule Count the overnights

Compare with

Alternating weekends (86/14)Week-on / week-off (50/50)2-2-3 (50/50)2-2-5-5 (50/50) All schedules →