Parenting time and child support in Colorado
Colorado no longer has a parenting-time threshold. Shared physical care now requires only a single overnight a year, and each parent’s credit is read off the state parenting time table according to that parent’s number of overnights, so support moves gradually rather than at a cliff.
Does Colorado have a parenting-time threshold?
Not any more. Shared physical care in Colorado requires only one overnight a year, and the parenting-time credit percentage is read off the state parenting time table according to each parent’s number of overnights, which makes the effect continuous rather than a cliff.
The older Colorado test, which turned on more than ninety-two overnights, was struck by the amendment recorded beside this rule. A Colorado order written against that old line therefore describes a rule that is no longer the one applied, which is worth knowing before reusing an older plan as a model.
- Colorado — C.R.S. § 14-10-115(3)(h), (8)(b), (8)(h), as amended by HB25-1159 (2025), operative March 1, 2026. Verified .This supersedes the "more than ninety-two overnights" test — operative number 93 — which HB25-1159 struck effective March 1, 2026. An order or a plan written against that older test describes a rule that is no longer applied. Bill status and signature: https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/hb25-1159
What to know before you file in Colorado
Colorado asks separated parents to file a parenting plan, and the state judicial branch publishes one standard plan form used across the whole state. It covers parenting time, decision-making responsibility, holidays, travel and exchanges in a single document, so a Colorado plan is one filing rather than a stack of separate agreements.
Because the Colorado credit is read from a table of overnights, the count itself is worth getting right. Write the rotation out across a whole year and count real overnights, including the ones that fall inside school breaks, rather than estimating from a typical two-week pattern that never survives the summer intact.
A Colorado parenting plan is reviewed rather than simply accepted, so vague wording tends to come back. Say which parent has the child on which nights, name the holidays explicitly, and say who drives each way; a Colorado plan that answers those three questions is far easier to follow when the two households disagree.
The Colorado form
The Colorado Judicial Branch statewide district court form on which parents record the parenting-time schedule, decision-making responsibilities, holidays and travel for their children.