Child custody in Colorado

What the law tells the judge to look at

In the order the law lists them.

1. What each parent wants for parenting time.C.R.S. 14-10-124(1.5)(a)(I)
2. What your child wants, if the child is mature enough to state reasoned and independent preferences about the schedule.C.R.S. 14-10-124(1.5)(a)(II)
3. How your child gets along with each parent, brothers and sisters, and anyone else who may significantly affect the child's best interests.C.R.S. 14-10-124(1.5)(a)(III)
4. Any report about domestic violence from a child and family investigator, a parental responsibilities evaluator, or the child's legal representative. The court may also consider other relevant, admissible evidence about domestic violence, child abuse or neglect, or sexual assault that resulted in the child's conception, and must make findings on the record about whether it happened.C.R.S. 14-10-124(1.5)(a)(III.5)
5. How well your child has adjusted to home, school, and community.C.R.S. 14-10-124(1.5)(a)(IV)
6. The mental and physical health of everyone involved. A disability alone cannot be a reason to deny or limit parenting time.C.R.S. 14-10-124(1.5)(a)(V)
7. Whether each parent can encourage love, affection, and contact between the child and the other parent. A parent's actions to protect the child from witnessing or suffering domestic violence or abuse are not held against that parent.C.R.S. 14-10-124(1.5)(a)(VI)
8. Whether each parent's past involvement with the child shows values, time commitment, and mutual support.C.R.S. 14-10-124(1.5)(a)(VII)
9. How close the parents live to each other, as it affects the practical side of parenting time.C.R.S. 14-10-124(1.5)(a)(VIII)
10. Whether each parent can put the child's needs ahead of their own.C.R.S. 14-10-124(1.5)(a)(XI)

Other things the judge considers

• The child's safety and physical, mental, and emotional needs come first in every decision.C.R.S. 14-10-124(1.5)
• For decision-making, the court also considers credible evidence that the parents can cooperate and decide together, whether past involvement shows they can be mutual decision makers, and whether mutual decision-making will promote more contact with each parent.C.R.S. 14-10-124(1.5)(b)(I)-(III)
• The court cannot restrict parenting time unless it finds, after a hearing, that parenting time would endanger the child's physical health or significantly impair the child's emotional development, and it must make findings for any restriction.C.R.S. 14-10-124(1.5)(a); 14-10-129(1)(b)(I)
• If the court orders unsupervised time for a parent accused of domestic violence, child abuse, child sexual abuse, emotional abuse, or coercive control, it must explain why in writing or on the record.C.R.S. 14-10-124(9)

What the judge may not consider

The court may not consider a parent's conduct that does not affect the parent's relationship with the child, and may not presume a parent is better because of their sex. It should not rely on information or recommendations biased by religion, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, culture, race, ethnicity, national origin, or disability. Asking for genetic testing cannot be held against a parent. Leaving home because of the other parent's domestic violence or abuse is not a factor against the parent who left (C.R.S. 14-10-124(1.5)(a.5), (1.6)(d), (2), (3), (3.5)).

Joint custody

No presumption. Colorado has no presumption for or against shared decision-making or equal parenting time; the court allocates each based on the child's best interests. State policy encourages frequent and continuing contact with both parents when appropriate.

The child's wishes

The court considers the wishes of a child who is mature enough to express reasoned and independent preferences about the parenting time schedule. The statute sets no age.

Domestic violence

If the court finds by a preponderance of the evidence that a parent committed domestic violence, child abuse or neglect, or sexual assault that resulted in the child's conception, the safety of the child and the abused parent becomes the primary concern. The court may not give shared (mutual) decision-making over the other parent's objection unless it finds shared decisions can happen without coercion, intimidation, retaliation, or risk of harm, and it must set conditions on parenting time to keep the child and abused parent safe (for example, supervised time, protected exchanges, no overnights, a confidential address). The court must consider whether to prohibit or restrict that parent's time and may order a domestic violence evaluation and treatment at that parent's cost. Domestic violence includes coercive control, economic abuse, and stalking, whether or not it is a crime; protective actions are not domestic violence.

Establishing paternity

How

Both parents can sign a Voluntary Acknowledgement of Parentage and file it with Colorado Vital Records. This adds the second parent to the birth certificate and has the same effect as a court finding of parentage. Either signer can cancel it within 60 days after signing, or by the date of any court or agency case about the child they are part of, whichever is first. After that it can only be challenged in court for fraud, duress, or mistake of material fact. You can also file a court case (Petition to Determine Parentage, JDF 1501), or ask county child support services to open a case.

Form

Voluntary Acknowledgement of Parentage

Agency

Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, Vital Records
https://cdphe.colorado.gov/correct-or-change-a-birth-certificate

Changing an order

The court can change parenting time whenever it serves the child's best interests. A big change that also changes which parent the child lives with most of the time requires new facts showing a change in the child's or that parent's circumstances, and the change must be necessary for the child's best interests. The court keeps the old schedule unless parents agree, the child has moved into the other parent's family with consent, there is a planned move (relocation), or the child's present home is dangerous. Changing decision-making has a similar standard.

Waiting period: After a motion for a big change (or a change in decision-making) is decided, you generally must wait 2 years before filing another, unless affidavits show the child may be in danger or there is a planned relocation.

Law: C.R.S. 14-10-129(1), (1.5), (2); 14-10-131

If the other parent does not follow the order

If the other parent does not follow the parenting time order, you can file a verified motion about parenting time disputes (JDF 1418). Within 35 days the court must deny it, set a hearing, or send you to mediation. If the court finds a violation, it can add terms, change the order, order a parenting class or counseling at the violator's cost, require a bond, order make-up time (usually within 6 months), find contempt with a fine or jail, impose a civil fine of up to $100 per denied visit, or set a hearing to change decision-making. Child support cannot be tied to parenting time.

Law: C.R.S. 14-10-129.5

Grandparent visitation

Yes, called grandparent or great-grandparent family time. You can ask only if there is or was a custody case about the child, which includes a divorce or legal separation of the parents, custody given to someone other than a parent, or the death of the child's parent who is your child or grandchild. You file a petition and affidavit in district court. The court presumes the parent's decision about family time is in the child's best interests; you must show by clear and convincing evidence that family time is in the child's best interests. You can generally file only once every 2 years.

Custody by someone who is not a parent

A non-parent can ask for parental responsibilities if the child is not in the physical care of a parent, or if the non-parent has had physical care of the child for 182 days or more and files within 182 days after that care ended. If a grandparent asks, the court must consider any credible evidence of the grandparent's past child abuse or neglect.

Custody and visitation in the order

Yes. When a county or district court issues a civil protection order, it must, if either party asks, include temporary care and control of shared children for up to one year. It can set parenting time and conditions such as supervision, or deny parenting time if safety cannot be ensured. These decisions use the same best-interest standard as custody cases. There is no filing fee if you ask for the order as a victim of domestic violence, stalking, or sexual violence.