Custody

If a non-parent, a licensed child-placing agency, or the Department of Family and Protective Services is appointed as a managing conservator, they are given a number of rights and responsibilities, including:

• the responsibility:
  • of care, control, protection, and reasonable discipline of the child;
  • to give the child with clothing, food, shelter, and education;
  • to provide medical, psychological, and dental care and to consent to treatment; and
• the right to:
  • have physical possession of the child;
  • direct the child’s moral and religious training;
  • access the child’s medical records;
  • give and receive payments for the support of the child;
  • hold and spend funds for the benefit of the child;
  • the “services and earnings” of the child;
  • consent to the child marrying or enlisting in the military;
  • act as an agent of the child’s estate, unless a guardian of the estate or guardian ad litem has been appointed;
  • decide where the child lives;
  • make decisions about the child’s education;
  • consent to the adoption of the child, if the child has no living parent or all living parents have had their rights terminated; and
  • apply for, maintain, and renew the child’s passport.¹

¹ Tex. Fam. Code § 153.371