Providing for your family often means making tough decisions about where you should live, work, and raise your children. This is especially true after a split, whether or not you have been married to your children’s other parent. 

To move away while you are co-parenting in Colorado, you have to get a court’s approval for your new plan. What do Colorado courts want to see before they approve a parent’s request to relocate? 

Permission to Move: Who Needs It and What It Means

Colorado courts will view custody cases between married and unmarried parents in much the same way, although the filing procedures are different. A parent is technically free to move anywhere, but if they are in a co-parenting relationship, they are not free to move their minor children without their ex’s agreement or the court’s approval. And if a parent moves without their children, they must seek a modification of their parenting time schedule.

A Colorado custody determination case is called an “allocation of parenting responsibilities.” A married parent seeks allocation of parenting responsibilities as part of a divorce or separation proceeding, while an unmarried parent files a separate case. If you are an unmarried man and are not yet legally recognized as your child’s father, you may need to file a parentage case to assert your parental rights and responsibilities.

In either situation, the parents will be under a temporary court order not to take minor children out of Colorado without the other parent’s agreement or the court’s. See C.R.S. §§ 14-10-107, 123.

How Courts Review Requests

The First Parenting Plan

If you intend to move after completing your divorce or custody case, you can inform the court. You do not have to request permission for this move; the court will accept it. However, the court will consider your move if it has to decide whether the child will live with you and how much parenting time you should have.

When parents cannot agree, a Colorado court will determine the allocation of parenting time and responsibilities based on “the best interests of the child.” The court must determine the child’s best interests based on several factors set out in the law, including physical proximity—the parents’ distance from each other—as a practical consideration in managing parenting time. 

The court must also consider:

  • The child’s wishes, if they are mature enough to express “reasoned and independent preferences”
  • The child’s relationship with their parents, siblings, and anyone else who may significantly affect their best interests (such as grandparents)
  • Any report of domestic violence presented by a court investigator, evaluator, or representative
  • The child’s adjustment to their home and community
  • The mental and physical health of the parents and children (although disabilities alone will not disqualify parents)
  • The parent’s ability “to encourage the sharing of love, affection, and contact between the child and the other [parent]” (unless abuse or violence is a factor)
  • Whether the parent’s past involvement reflects “a system of values, time commitment, and mutual support”
  • Each parent’s ability to place the child’s needs ahead of their own 

See C.R.S. § 14-10-124(1.5). In dividing decision-making responsibilities between the parents, the court must also consider whether the parents have been able to cooperate in the past and whether mutual decision-making would help create “a positive and nourishing relationship” for the child. 

Modifying the Parenting Plan for a Post-Decree Move

Moving will be more complicated when a parenting plan is already in place. You must notify the other parent as soon as possible if you intend to move the child to a home “that substantially changes the geographical ties” between the other parent and the child. Even if you are not the majority-time parent and do not intend to move the child to a new residence, you still need to get a modification of the parenting plan if you need a new parenting schedule. 

When you and your co-parent can agree on a new parenting plan, the court will likely approve it. If your co-parent will not agree to a plan, the court must decide whether and how to modify parenting time. Hearings on a child’s relocation get priority on the court’s docket. 

Together with the factors on the best interests of the child, as detailed above, the court must consider:

  • The parent’s reasons for relocation (such as an employer’s requirements)
  • The other parent’s objections to the relocation
  • The “history and quality of each parent’s relationship with the child” since the last parenting time order
  • The child’s educational opportunities at their current location and the proposed future location
  • “The presence or absence of extended family” at the child’s current location and at the proposed new location
  • Any advantages in the child remaining with the current primary caregiver
  • “The anticipated impact of the move on the child”
  • Whether the court can create a “reasonable parenting time schedule” with the proposed relocation
  • Allegations that “the child’s present environment endangers the child’s physical health or significantly impairs the child’s emotional development” and that the advantages of a move would outweigh any harm
  • Any other relevant factors 

See C.R.S. § 14-10-129. Military service members who must relocate may have further legal options.

Your Attorneys in Colorado Springs 

If you are considering moving—or your co-parent is—and worry about how it will affect your children, contact us today. Whether you are moving within Colorado or outside of the state, our Colorado family law attorneys can help your family get the plan it needs. Call us today at 719-451-7469 to schedule your free case evaluation.