Couples with children who end their relationships must work with family law attorneys on issues of child custody and satisfying the state’s custody requirements.
While the most important detail that lawyers stress to their clients is that decisions should be made according to what is in the child’s best interest, parental rights are a concern as well.
Each parent has rights in the arrangement and family law firms point out that creating a workable custody agreement requires each parent to recognize those rights as they attempt to co-parent together.
Parental Rights in Texas
Regardless of the relationship between parents, whether divorced or never married in the first place and are now separating, according to child custody lawyers all parents in Texas have the same general parental rights.
The only time they do not is when they have either voluntarily waived their parental rights or if parental rights have been taken away by a family court judge.
Those rights include:
- Every parent in Texas has the legal right to co-parent with the other parent and collectively make decisions relating to a child’s education, health, and general well-being, regardless of who is the custodial parent. This includes their right to visitation plus having full access to school and medical records as well as other information about the child. Parents should refer to their lawyers for assistance if the other parent is refusing co-parenting according to the custody agreement.
- Parents have the right to attend school functions, extracurricular activities, and social events at any time, including on “off” days or weekends. Attorneys warn that parents may not prohibit each other from participating in any of these events.
- In terms of emergency medical care, both parents have the right to collectively discuss and decide on emergency treatment for their child. In cases where one parent is not accessible and decisions need to be made quickly, a single available parent may make those decisions alone, on behalf of both parents.
Aside from these more general parental rights, law firms will advise their clients that there are two more parental rights that only custodial parents hold.
Those custodial parental rights are the right to decide where the child’s primary residence will be and the right to provide a receipt for child support payments accepted from the other parent.
These two, since they are given only to the custodial parent, are the ones that family attorneys find to be the more highly contested rights.
In Summary
Texas parents have the right to co-parent their children with ex-spouses and ex-partners and with that right, the ability to take part in important decisions for their child.
Any parent having their parental rights denied should reach out to a family law firm to discuss the situation and whether legal enforcement of parental rights by the court must be considered.