A Parent In Prison
Fam. Code 154.066 — incarceration is not intentional unemployment
Incarceration is not intentional unemployment. Where an obligor's actual income is significantly less than what the obligor could earn because of intentional unemployment or underemployment, the court may apply the support guidelines to the obligor's earning potential. The court may not consider incarceration as intentional unemployment or underemployment when establishing or modifying a support order.
- A court may modify a support order if the circumstances of the child or a person affected by the order have materially and substantially changed, or if three years have passed since the order was rendered or last modified and the guideline amount differs by either 20 percent or $100.
- Incarceration of the obligor in a local, state or federal jail or prison for a period exceeding 180 days is a material and substantial change of circumstances.
- Release from incarceration is also a material and substantial change, where the support obligation was abated, reduced or suspended during the incarceration.
- A change in the amount reaches only obligations accruing after the earlier of the date of service of citation or an appearance in the suit to modify, apart from the exceptions the section names.
Termination: two years of confinement. One ground on which a court may order termination of the relationship between parent and child, found by clear and convincing evidence, is that the parent knowingly engaged in criminal conduct that resulted in the parent's conviction of an offense and confinement or imprisonment and inability to care for the child for not less than two years from the date the petition is filed. The court must also find that termination is in the best interest of the child.
Possession of and access to a child while a parent is incarcerated, the other grounds for termination, and the department's visiting, mail and telephone rules, which are its policy rather than statute, are not on this page. Custody has its own page. Whether an order can be changed in a particular case is a question for a licensed Texas attorney.
Sources for this section (3)
- Fam. Code 154.066 — Intentional unemployment or underemployment
- Fam. Code 156.401 — Grounds for modification of child support
- Fam. Code 161.001 — Involuntary termination of parent-child relationship
Legal information, not legal advice. Verified as of September 2026. Applying it to a particular situation is the work of a licensed Texas attorney.