By Rita Boyd, Attorney at Law
In Texas, what people call “custody” is legally “conservatorship” — the rights, powers, and duties a parent has toward their child. How much time a parent actually spends with the child is a separate concept, called “possession.”
Texas law presumes it’s in a child’s best interest for both parents to be named Joint Managing Conservators (Tex. Fam. Code §153.131(b)). A parent arguing against that has the burden of proving why. Even under joint conservatorship, specific rights — like consenting to medical treatment or making educational decisions — can be divided in different ways: independently, jointly, or with one parent having final say.
Sole vs. joint conservatorship
A Sole Managing Conservator holds these rights exclusively; the other parent becomes a Possessory Conservator with visitation rights and a smaller, mostly non-negotiable set of baseline rights (like access to medical and school records). Courts must award sole conservatorship where there’s a credible history of family violence or child abuse (§153.004(b)) — this history can also restrict a parent to less than standard possession, and pleading “no contest” to a family-violence charge still counts against you later, even if the couple later reconciles.
Baseline parental rights (regardless of conservatorship type)
- Access to medical, dental, psychological, and educational records
- The right to consult with the child’s doctors and school officials
- The right to attend school activities and be listed as an emergency contact
- The right to consent to emergency medical treatment
- The duty to inform the other parent of significant health, education, or welfare information
Grandparents and other non-parents can, in limited circumstances, seek conservatorship or possession — but they must meet specific legal standing requirements first. This is a genuinely complex area of law; an attorney who practices family law exclusively is worth the investment if conservatorship is contested in your case.