Know your Visitation Rights for the Austin, Texas School Year

Written By Chris Merritt

Time for School to Begin in Austin, Texas:  Make Sure You Know Your Possession Rights

As school is beginning in the fall each year in Austin, Texas, I get a lot of phone calls asking about how visitation rights change when the kids do go back to school. The first answer is to always check with your decree. It should have any changes to the possession schedule that will occur during the school year. Things that I always suggest that parent look for:

In a Standard Possession Schedule the parent who does not determine the primary domicile of the children will usually have some midweek visitation, most often occurring on Thursdays. This period of possession may be from the time school is out on Thursday or at 6:00 p.m. and end either at 8:00 p.m. that same evening or when school resumes the following morning.

Also, most possession schedules add additional periods of possession for holidays or other periods when children do not go to school such as for teacher in-service days. Some of the holidays during the fall of 2014 and spring of 2015 are:

Labor Day – September 1, 2014
Columbus Day – October 13, 2014
Veterans Day – November 11, 2014
Thanksgiving Day – November 27, 2014
Christmas Day – December 25, 2014
New Years Day – January 1, 2015
Martins Luther King Jr. Day – January 19, 2015
Presidents’ Day – February 16, 2015
Good Friday – April 3, 2015
Memorial Day – May 25, 2015

You should check with your Austin, Round Rock, Georgetown or other local Texas school district and get a calendar for the 2014-2015 school year. This way you can determine which, if any, of these days your child’s school may be taking off. Also look at other days off from school, such as spring breaks and teacher in-service days.

Once you have the school’s calendar and your orders you can then see if any of your periods of possession are extended by any days and when your holidays begin and end for the upcoming school year. This allows you to get a good overview of the schedule and start planning any trips or vacations that you may want to take over the school year.

The last bit of advice is when making your school calendar to make sure that you note the date that your notice is due for your election of summer 2015 visitation. In the Standard Possession Schedule this is either April 1 or April 15. While that may seem far away, that time will come quicker than we all think.

Planning calendars can be a helpful and beneficial task that we suggest everyone do. It is helpful to you, your children and your former spouse to know well in advance where the children will be spending their time throughout the school year.