Sole Managing Conservator and Possessory Conservator – Rights and Responsibilities

The OAG addresses the following issues in a Suit Affecting the Parent Child Relationship (parents are not married): child and medical support, and conservatorship and possession and access (parenting time). This section addresses the parenting portion—conservatorship and possession and access. In most cases, the standard possession order (SPO) is included in your OAG child support court order.

When one parent is appointed sole managing conservator and one parent is appointed possessory conservator, there are parental rights that:

  1. All conservators (parents) have at all times
  2. You have when the child is in your care and control
  3. Only the Sole Managing Conservator gets.

What rights are given exclusively to the sole managing conservator?

There are certain rights or decisions that only the sole managing conservator can make for the child. The possessory conservator does not have the right to:

  1. establish primary residence of the child;
  2. receive child support on the child’s behalf.
  3. consent to medical, dental, and surgical treatment involving invasive procedures;
  4. consent to psychiatric and psychological treatment of the child;
  5. represent the child in legal action and make other decisions of substantial
    legal significance concerning the child;
  6. consent to marriage and to enlistment in the armed forces;
  7. make decisions concerning the child’s education;
  8. the services and earnings of the child;
  9. act as an agent of the child’s estate if any action is required by federal or state law (unless a guardian has been appointed to take care of the child’s estate).