POST-DECREE MODIFICATIONS IN COLORADO
A divorce decree or parenting plan reflects your life on the day it was signed. Years later, incomes change, children start school somewhere new, and a parent gets orders to move. Colorado law allows many parts of a decree to be revisited, but only when specific statutory standards are met.
This page explains what can be changed after a decree, what the court requires before it will change an order, and how enforcement differs from modification.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- What Counts as a Post-Decree Modification
- When Colorado Law Allows an Order to Be Changed
- Relocating With a Child After the Decree
- Enforcing an Order the Other Party Ignores
- How a Modification Moves Through El Paso County Court
- How We Handle Post-Decree Cases
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Sources
WHAT COUNTS AS A POST-DECREE MODIFICATION
A post-decree modification is a request to change an existing court order after your case has already concluded. The orders most often revisited are child support, spousal maintenance, parenting time, and decision-making responsibility.
Modification is different from enforcement. A modification asks the court to change what the order requires going forward. Enforcement asks the court to make the other party follow the order that already exists.
Property division is treated differently from both. Under C.R.S. 14-10-122, a court will not revoke or modify how property was divided unless it finds conditions that justify reopening a judgment. That is a narrow opening, and it is not the same standard that applies to support or parenting orders.
WHEN COLORADO LAW ALLOWS AN ORDER TO BE CHANGED
Child Support
Child support may be modified on a showing of changed circumstances that are substantial and continuing, or on the ground that the order does not address medical support such as insurance coverage, deductibles, copayments, or unreimbursed medical expenses.
The statute puts a number on the first ground. If running the current figures through the child support guidelines produces less than a ten percent change in the monthly amount, that is deemed not to be a substantial and continuing change.
One recent development matters here. Colorado revised its child support guidelines under House Bill 25-1159, and the revised schedule and parenting time adjustment took effect on March 1, 2026. The prior overnight threshold was replaced with an adjustment that gives credit for every overnight, and the underlying schedule of basic support obligations was updated.
A recalculation run today therefore uses a different schedule than one run in 2025. A figure that fell short of the ten percent threshold under the old schedule may reach it now, which is worth checking if you last looked at your numbers before this spring.
Timing matters as much as the math. A modification is generally effective as of the date the motion was filed, and the order cannot be modified retroactively to a date before filing, except when there has been a mutually agreed change of physical care. Waiting to file means giving up months of relief you cannot recover later.
Spousal Maintenance
Maintenance carries a higher bar. The moving party must show changed circumstances so substantial and continuing as to make the existing terms unfair.
Several rules limit when a motion can be brought at all. Unless the decree says otherwise, maintenance ends at the death of either party, at the remarriage or civil union of the recipient, at the end of the maintenance term unless a motion is filed before the term expires, or by court order.
Retirement has its own rule. A paying spouse whose income drops because of retirement after reaching full retirement age is entitled to a rebuttable presumption that the retirement was made in good faith. Note also that some separation agreements make maintenance non-modifiable by contract, which forecloses a later motion.
Parenting Time
Changes to the parenting time schedule that do not change which parent the child lives with most of the time are judged by the best interests of the child under C.R.S. 14-10-129.
Restricting a parent's time is harder. The court cannot restrict parenting time unless it finds that the time would endanger the child's physical health or significantly impair the child's emotional development, and it must state the specific facts supporting that finding.
A motion alleging that a child is in imminent physical or emotional danger must be heard and ruled on within fourteen days of filing, and parenting time during that window is supervised. Filing that motion without a real basis carries a cost, because the statute requires a frivolous or groundless filer to pay the other party's reasonable attorney fees and costs.
Changing the parent the child lives with a majority of the time requires facts that arose after the decree or that were unknown to the court at the time, a change in circumstances, and a finding that the change is necessary for the child's best interests. Even then, the prior schedule stays in place unless the parties agree, the child has been integrated into the moving party's family with the other parent's consent, relocation is involved, or the present environment endangers the child and the harm of changing it is outweighed by the benefit. Once such a motion is decided, a second one is barred for two years absent endangerment or an intended relocation.
Decision-Making Responsibility
Decision-making authority over schooling, healthcare, and religious upbringing is governed by C.R.S. 14-10-131. The court keeps the existing allocation unless one of the statutory exceptions applies.
Those exceptions include agreement of the parties, integration of the child into the moving party's family with consent, a parenting time modification that warrants a matching change, a pattern of one party consistently letting the other make decisions that were supposed to be joint or individual, and endangerment where the harm of a change is outweighed by the benefit to the child.
This statute carries its own two-year restriction. After a motion to modify decision-making is decided, a new one cannot be filed for two years unless the court finds, based on affidavits, reason to believe that continuing the current order may endanger the child's physical health or significantly impair the child's emotional development.
Findings of Domestic Violence or Abuse
A 2026 act changed how these cases are handled when abuse is raised. House Bill 26-1309 took effect on May 27, 2026. It moved the definitions of domestic violence and coercive control into C.R.S. 14-10-103 and broadened them.
Domestic violence now reaches threatened acts, damage to property, harm to an animal, stalking, sexual assault, coercive control, economic abuse, and human trafficking, whether or not the conduct is a criminal offense. Behavior a parent uses to protect themselves, a family member, or an animal from the other parent is expressly not domestic violence.
Where evidence of domestic violence, child abuse or neglect, or sexual assault that resulted in the conception of a child is put before the court, the court must make findings on the record by a preponderance of the evidence. If it makes such a finding, it cannot allocate mutual decision-making over the other party's objection unless it also finds specifically that shared decisions can be made without coercion, intimidation, retaliation, or risk of harm.
The act also directs the court to impose safety conditions on parenting time in those cases. The listed options include supervised parenting time, exchanges in a protected setting, restricted overnights, keeping an address confidential, and routing support payments through the child support registry so the parties do not have to deal with each other directly.
RELOCATING WITH A CHILD AFTER THE DECREE
A parent who has the child a majority of the time and intends to move somewhere that substantially changes the child's geographic ties to the other parent must give written notice as soon as practicable. That notice has to state where the parent intends to live, the reason for the move, and a proposed revised parenting time plan.
Relocation hearings are given priority on the court's docket. The court weighs the reasons for the move, the reasons for the objection, each parent's relationship with the child, educational opportunities in both locations, extended family in both locations, the advantages of staying with the primary caregiver, the anticipated impact on the child, and whether a workable parenting schedule can still be built.
Military reassignment out of Fort Carson, Peterson Space Force Base, or Schriever Space Force Base is a common driver of these cases in Colorado Springs. Neither parent starts with a presumption in their favor, so preparation and evidence carry the outcome.
ENFORCING AN ORDER THE OTHER PARTY IGNORES
When a parent withholds court-ordered parenting time, C.R.S. 14-10-129.5 gives the court a set of tools. Available remedies include makeup parenting time of the same type and duration as the time that was denied, a finding of contempt, an order setting a hearing on modification of the existing order, and a civil fine of up to one hundred dollars for each incident of denied parenting time. That fine is paid to the state rather than to the other parent.
The fee provision has teeth. The court is required to order a parent who failed to provide or to exercise court-ordered parenting time to pay the aggrieved party's attorney fees, court costs, and expenses tied to the action.
It runs both ways. If the responding parent is found not to have violated the parenting time order, the court may order the parent who filed to pay that parent's fees, costs, and expenses instead.
Unpaid support is handled differently. Each support payment becomes a final money judgment when it is due and not paid, and it can be enforced like any other judgment. Contempt proceedings are also available where a party has the ability to comply and refuses to do so.
HOW A MODIFICATION MOVES THROUGH EL PASO COUNTY COURT
Most post-decree matters are filed in the court that entered the original decree, which for local families is usually the El Paso County District Court in the Fourth Judicial District. The process begins with a verified motion setting out the facts and the relief requested, followed by the other party's response within the deadline set by the Colorado Rules of Civil Procedure.
Support matters require updated financial disclosures from both parties, so pay records, tax returns, and childcare and insurance costs should be gathered early. Many contested motions are sent to mediation before the court will set a hearing.
Some cases resolve by written stipulation, which the court then reviews and enters as an order. Others go to a contested hearing where each side presents testimony and exhibits.
HOW WE HANDLE POST-DECREE CASES
- Reviewing your existing decree and parenting plan to identify which provisions are modifiable and which are not
- Running current child support figures to determine whether the ten percent threshold is met
- Filing and defending motions to modify parenting time, decision-making responsibility, child support, and maintenance
- Handling relocation notices and objections, including military reassignment cases
- Bringing and defending enforcement and contempt actions
- Negotiating stipulated modifications when both parties are open to resolving the matter without a hearing
Moran, Allen & Associates handles post-decree matters throughout Colorado Springs and El Paso County. If your circumstances have changed since your decree was entered, contact our office to schedule a consultation and review your options.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Does a raise automatically change my child support?
No. Support does not adjust on its own. A parent has to file a motion, and a recalculation that produces less than a ten percent change in the monthly amount is deemed not to be a substantial and continuing change of circumstances.
We already agree on the change. Do we still need the court?
Yes. An informal agreement between parents does not alter the existing order, and the paying party remains liable under the order as written. The agreement should be submitted as a written stipulation for the court to review and enter.
Can I stop paying support if I am being denied parenting time?
No. Support and parenting time are separate obligations, and withholding payment creates a judgment against you rather than a remedy. The correct step is a motion to enforce the parenting time order.
Do I have to wait two years to file again?
It depends on what you are asking to change. The two-year restrictions apply to motions to modify decision-making responsibility and to motions that would change which parent the child lives with a majority of the time. Both have exceptions for endangerment, and the parenting time restriction also has an exception for an intended relocation.
How long does a post-decree modification take?
Timelines vary with the court's docket, whether mediation is required, and whether the other party contests the motion. Stipulated matters can conclude in a few weeks, while contested hearings generally take several months to reach a final order.
SOURCES
- House Bill 26-1309, Abuse in Cases of Separation, Colorado General Assembly
- House Bill 25-1159, Child Support Commission Recommendations, Colorado General Assembly
- C.R.S. 14-10-122, Modification and termination of provisions for maintenance, support, and property disposition
- C.R.S. 14-10-129, Modification of parenting time
- C.R.S. 14-10-129.5, Disputes concerning parenting time
- C.R.S. 14-10-131, Modification of custody or decision-making responsibility