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Gold Star Plate — Foster and Step Relations Count, and the Fee Subsection Is Gone

Four plates — Gold Star Mother, Gold Star Father, Gold Star Spouse and Gold Star Family — for the family of a person who died while serving in the armed forces. The statute defines "immediate family member" unusually widely: parent, child, sibling, adoptive parent, adoptive child, foster parent, foster child, stepparent and stepchild all qualify. One set at a time, per person.

Verified August 23, 2026

What this benefit is

Four plates — Gold Star Mother, Gold Star Father, Gold Star Spouse and Gold Star Family — for the family of a person who died while serving in the armed forces. The statute defines "immediate family member" unusually widely: parent, child, sibling, adoptive parent, adoptive child, foster parent, foster child, stepparent and stepchild all qualify. One set at a time, per person.

What it's worth: Gold Star Mother, Father, Spouse or Family plates — one set at a time

  • Subsection (a-1) defines "immediate family member" as the parent, child, sibling, adoptive parent, adoptive child, foster parent, foster child, stepparent or stepchild of the person who died.
  • The plate must show one of "Gold Star Mother", "Gold Star Father", "Gold Star Spouse" or "Gold Star Family", together with a gold star.
  • A person may not be issued more than one set of these plates at a time.
  • Subsection (b), which set the fee, was repealed by Acts 2015, 84th Leg., ch. 741, effective 1 January 2016.
  • The section was last amended by Acts 2023, 88th Leg., ch. 385 (H.B. 282), effective 1 September 2023.

Who is entitled to it

  • You are family of a person who died while serving.
  • The member died while serving.
  • Your home is in this state.

Not sure whether that describes you?

Answer a few questions about this benefit specifically — we only ask what this one actually depends on, and we stop as soon as we know.

How to claim it

  1. 1Read the relationship list before you decide you are outside it. Foster parents, foster children, stepparents and stepchildren are named in the statute alongside the blood relations.
  2. 2Pick the right plate of the four. Mother, Father, Spouse and Family are separate designs, and a person may hold only one set at a time.
  3. 3Do not budget from an old fee figure. The subsection that set a fee for this plate was repealed with effect from 1 January 2016 and has not been replaced in the section.
  4. 4Personalising the plate is a separate transaction with its own charge — ask what it is before you order a pattern.
Form
Application for Gold Star License Plates (VTR-423)
File with
Texas Department of Motor Vehicles, Specialty Plates Unit
Documents you will need
proof of relationship · dd1300 or casualty report
Renew annually
Worth knowingThe definition is the story. Most Gold Star plate statutes stop at parent and spouse. This one names foster and step relations explicitly, which reaches families that raised a servicemember without ever adopting them.
CorrectionThe statute sets no remarriage condition. A surviving spouse who remarried is not disqualified by anything in the section as it now reads.
Known gapWith the fee subsection repealed, the charge — if any — now sits in the department’s fee schedule rather than in the statute, and the plate guide was not machine-readable this session. Confirm the current figure with the Specialty Plates Unit before ordering.

Sources

This finder provides an informational match, not a government eligibility determination. The responsible agency decides your application.