Moving Within Colorado? How Relocation Affects Your Parenting Plan

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Say you’re a medical office coordinator in Colorado Springs who accepted a regional manager position in Thornton — a $23,000 raise and a roughly 75-mile move. Your parenting plan was built around a schedule where the other parent picks the kids up every other Friday and sees them on Tuesday evenings.

Nobody is driving three hours round-trip for a 4-to-7pm Tuesday visit.

The career decision is made. The parenting plan question is not. Here’s what Colorado law actually says about moving within the state, and where people consistently get it wrong.

There’s No Mileage Rule — the Statute Asks a Different Question

A common assumption is that relocation law only applies when you cross a state line. It doesn’t. C.R.S. § 14-10-129 — the parenting time modification statute — contains relocation provisions that apply whenever a parent with whom the child lives a majority of the time intends to move “to a residence that substantially changes the geographical ties between the child and the other party.” Nothing in that language distinguishes a move to Kansas from a move from El Paso County to Adams County.

Here’s the frustrating part: the statute never defines “substantially changes the geographical ties,” and there’s no mileage threshold anywhere in it. A move across town almost certainly doesn’t qualify. A 75-mile move that eliminates weekday visits might. There’s no number to look up — courts evaluate the actual effect on the parenting schedule.

Your parenting plan is the other document to read closely. Some Colorado parenting plans include their own relocation clauses — advance written notice of 30 or 60 days, sometimes a required mediation step. Many standard plans include nothing on the subject at all. If yours is silent, the statute is what governs.

What the Statute Requires From a Relocating Parent

When a majority-time parent’s move does substantially change geographical ties, C.R.S. § 14-10-129(1)(a)(II) requires that parent to give the other parent written notice as soon as practicable. The notice has three required pieces: where the parent intends to live, the reason for the relocation, and a proposed revised parenting time plan.

That last item surprises people.

The notice isn’t a one-line “I’m moving to Thornton” — the statute expects a concrete proposed schedule to accompany it.

Two other features of the statute matter for planning purposes. First, relocation hearings receive priority on the court’s docket. Second, the two-year waiting rule that normally limits repeat parenting time motions (C.R.S. § 14-10-129(1.5)) contains an express exception for relocation cases — a relocation motion can be heard even if a prior motion was decided less than two years ago. When a contested relocation goes to hearing, the court weighs the best-interests factors, including the relocation-specific factors at C.R.S. § 14-10-129(2)(c): the reasons for the move, the reasons the other parent objects, educational opportunities, the impact on the child, and whether a workable schedule can be built around the distance.

Whether any particular move triggers these provisions is a case-specific legal question. That determination is exactly the kind of thing a licensed Colorado attorney — or the free Sherlock family court facilitator in your judicial district — can help you think through.

The Schedule Change Is Also a Money Change

Distance reshapes schedules in a predictable way: weekday visits disappear, and weekends and summers get longer to compensate. That reshuffling changes each parent’s overnight count, and overnights feed directly into the child support math.

Take the Colorado Springs-to-Thornton scenario. Under the current order, the other parent has about 85 overnights a year — every other weekend, Tuesday evenings (no overnight), ten summer days, alternating holidays. The proposed post-move schedule extends weekends to Friday-through-Monday and adds four weeks of summer, landing at roughly 121 overnights.

Under the unified Support Worksheet (JDF 1821, revised March 2026), each parent’s overnight count runs through the Parenting Time Table at C.R.S. § 14-10-115(8)(h), which assigns a graduated credit starting from the very first overnight. More overnights means a larger credit for that parent, which changes the final support number. Before March 1, 2026, Colorado used a two-worksheet system with a hard cliff at 93 overnights; HB 25-1159 eliminated that cliff, so a jump from 85 to 121 overnights now moves the calculation gradually rather than flipping it to a different formula.

One form detail worth knowing: JDF 1406, the Motion to Modify Parenting Time, includes a checkbox requesting that child support be modified along with the schedule. Checking it folds a support recalculation into the parenting time case — using both parents’ current incomes, not the incomes from the original order. Whether to request that recalculation is a decision each filer makes for themselves; we cover how parenting time changes flow into the support calculation in a separate guide. And keep in mind the modification standard for support itself hasn’t changed — Colorado’s 10% threshold still applies to the resulting change in the support amount.

Your Case Doesn’t Move With You

Moving from Colorado Springs to Thornton does not move your case from El Paso County to Adams County. Post-decree modifications are filed in the court that entered the original order — if your divorce ran through the 4th Judicial District, that’s where the motion goes, even after you’re living 75 miles away. Transferring venue requires a separate motion under C.R.C.P. 98(f), and it isn’t automatic.

The practical workaround is e-filing. Colorado Courts E-Filing (CCE) is available to self-represented parties in domestic relations cases, at $12 per filing plus $12 for electronic service, so the paperwork itself doesn’t require a drive back to the original courthouse. Hearings are a different matter — remote appearance policies vary by judge, and the district clerk’s office can confirm the current one.

The filing fee for a motion to modify is $105 under C.R.S. § 13-32-101(2), the same whether you file in person or through CCE.

One boundary to this whole discussion: everything above assumes both homes stay in Colorado. Interstate relocation brings in the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act (UCCJEA), which governs which state’s courts have authority over the case — a genuinely more complicated body of law. If your move crosses a state line, that’s a situation where consulting a licensed Colorado attorney makes sense before anything is filed.

Common Questions About Moving Within Colorado

Do I need the other parent’s permission to move within Colorado?

No Colorado statute requires a parent to obtain permission before moving within the state. But if the move substantially changes the geographical ties between the child and the other parent, C.R.S. § 14-10-129 requires written notice with a proposed revised schedule — and the other parent can contest the parenting time change in court. The parenting plan itself may also contain notice or consent provisions.

Does a 75-mile move count as “relocation” under the statute?

There’s no fixed answer, because the statute has no mileage test. The question is whether the move substantially changes the geographical ties between the child and the other parent — which depends on the existing schedule. A move that erases weekday parenting time looks different to a court than one that adds ten minutes to an exchange.

Can we adjust the schedule informally instead of going to court?

Parents can, and many do. The tradeoff: informal arrangements aren’t enforceable. If a dispute comes up later, the original court order controls — and child support stays at the ordered amount no matter what schedule you’re actually following. A formal modification through the court (by stipulation if you agree, or motion if you don’t) is what makes the new schedule and any new support amount enforceable. Our parenting time modification guide walks through both paths.

Does moving automatically change child support?

No. Nothing recalculates on its own. A support change requires either the cross-modification checkbox on JDF 1406 or a separate child support filing, and the resulting change generally must meet the 10% threshold under C.R.S. § 14-10-122.

Where to Go From Here

Three things to hold onto. Colorado’s relocation provisions turn on whether a move substantially changes geographical ties — not on state lines or mileage. A relocating majority-time parent owes the other parent written notice with a proposed revised schedule under C.R.S. § 14-10-129. And because overnights feed the Parenting Time Table on the unified worksheet, a schedule rebuilt around distance usually has child support consequences worth understanding early.

The current parenting time forms — JDF 1406 (motion), JDF 1423 (stipulation), and JDF 1113 (parenting plan) — are available at coloradojudicial.gov/self-help-forms, and the court’s own overview of the modification process is at coloradojudicial.gov/self-help/change-court-orders.