When substance use is raised in a parenting case, it changes what the court is looking at and what each parent has to show. Both parents in that situation tend to feel the ground move, the one raising the concern and the one answering it.
This page covers how Colorado courts handle it: what parenting time and decision-making actually mean, what the court weighs, and what orders are available short of ending contact.
Child Custody in Colorado
Under Colorado Revised Statutes 14-10-124, the legislature recognized that generally, co-parenting is optimal. Where possible, courts should encourage co-parenting to allow children to receive support, love, and affection from both parents. The legislature also recognizes, however, that co-parenting is not always possible or appropriate after a divorce or separation. The court must consider the best interests of the children when making a determination as to parenting time.
Parenting Time
Colorado does not typically use the phrase “child custody.” Instead, the law refers to the breakdown of parental responsibilities between “parenting time” and “decision-making responsibilities.” Rather than grant sole or joint custody, the court will allocate these responsibilities as it sees fit.
Parenting time refers to the physical custody of the child. The schedule of the child’s physical residence will be divided according to the child’s best interests unless the court finds that parenting time would endanger the child’s physical health or significantly impair the child’s emotional development
Some of the factors the court considers in setting a parenting time schedule include:
- The child’s wishes, if they are sufficiently mature to make a reasoned decision
- The child’s parents’ wishes
- How well the child will adjust to a new school or home
- The relationship of the child to each of the parents, other siblings, or other people who may impact the child’s living situation
- The mental and physical health of everyone involved, though a disability alone is not a reason to deny or restrict a parent’s time
- Each parent’s ability to encourage the child’s love, affection, and contact with the other parent. Steps taken to protect a child from abuse are not held against a parent here
- Whether each parent’s past involvement with the child reflects a system of values, real time commitment, and mutual support
- Each parent’s ability to put the child’s needs ahead of their own
- How close the parents live to each other
Decision-Making Responsibility
The other aspect of child custody in Colorado is “decision-making responsibility.” This describes the parents’ authority to make legal decisions on behalf of the child. Again, the court must first and foremost consider the best interests of the child. Some of the factors the court considers in allocating decision-making responsibility include:
- How well the parents can work together to make joint decisions
- Whether the parents have a system of values and mutual support such that they can create a positive and nourishing relationship with the child
- Whether sharing decision-making responsibility will promote continuing contact between the child and both parents
Where a court determines by a preponderance of the evidence that a party committed domestic violence, child abuse or neglect, or a sexual assault that resulted in the child’s conception, mutual decision-making is off the table over the objection of the other parent or the child’s legal representative. The exception is where the court specifically finds that mutual decisions can happen without coercion, intimidation, retaliation, or risk of harm. The court must also set conditions that keep the child and the abused parent safe.
Alcoholism and Child Custody
Because Colorado, like many states, bases child custody decisions upon the best interests of the child, alcoholism can be a barrier to a parent receiving parenting time and/or decision-making responsibility. Living with a parent with a serious substance abuse problem can hamper a child’s development and emotional well-being.
What the Court Actually Weighs
Impairment matters more than the substance. What a court looks at is whether a parent’s use affects their ability to care for the child safely: driving under the influence with the child in the car, leaving substances where a child can reach them, missing exchanges or school pickups, and being unable to respond in an emergency.
A court will not restrict parenting time unless it finds the time would endanger the child’s physical health or significantly impair the child’s emotional development. Any order restricting parenting time has to set out the specific facts behind it. Use alone does not meet that bar, and proof of use is not the same as proof of risk to the child.
Colorado law reinforces that. A parent’s disability alone cannot be the basis for denying or restricting parenting time in a family case without a clear connection to that parent’s ability to meet the child’s needs. Where concerns are raised, the parent gets to show how supportive services would address them, and a court that restricts anyway has to explain in writing why those services are not enough.
Protective routes exist short of changing the whole allocation. A court can order supervised parenting time, require testing or participation in treatment, or restrict overnight time. Where there is a safety threat, a protection order is available as well.
Where a child is in imminent physical or emotional danger, there is a faster route. If the motion lays out specific facts showing that danger, the court must hear and rule on it within fourteen days, and parenting time in the meantime is supervised. A motion that only repeats the statutory phrase can be denied without a hearing, and a motion the court finds substantially frivolous, groundless, or vexatious carries an attorney fee award against the parent who filed it. Emergency custody orders carry their own standard and their own evidence burden.
What the Research Does and Does Not Decide
The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry reports that children of parents with untreated alcohol use disorder more often struggle with school performance, relationships, and physical and mental health. That research informs how a court reads evidence. It does not create a rule.
Colorado courts decide case by case. There is no presumption that a parent who drinks loses parenting time, and no presumption that a diagnosis settles anything. The question stays on what the evidence shows about this child, in this household, under these conditions.
Effects of Alcoholism on Children
For many people suffering from alcoholism, it can put a significant strain on relationships and impair your ability to perform daily life functions and ability to care for a child. In some cases, it may have even been one of the main factors in the divorce. A spouse with alcoholism, may feel as though they are unfairly losing their children, while the other spouse may be concerned with the prospect of sharing child custody with someone who drinks.
Regardless of which side of the divorce you are on, alcohol use may come up in a child custody proceeding. One spouse may enter witness testimony to prove that the other spouse’s drinking problem threatens the health and safety of the child. If you find yourself in these circumstances, consider speaking with a Colorado divorce attorney at Johnson Law Group to discuss your case, especially if you are concerned that alcoholism will be raised as an issue.
Options for a Parent with Alcoholism
A parent in this position is not presumed to lose parenting time. Where use has affected the child’s safety, the court is more likely to order conditions than to end contact. Unless the parent is shown to have committed abuse or neglect, the court may find that there is still value for the child to maintain a relationship with this parent. In these cases, the court may order unique arrangements to help monitor the parent’s alcohol use and ensure the safety of the child.
For example, a court may grant supervised parenting time or require random drug and alcohol testing in order for a parent to maintain their parenting tim. The order may also specifically prohibit overnight stays with the parent suffering from alcoholism. The court may even order mandatory counseling or rehabilitation.
Talk to a Johnson Law Group Family Attorney To Learn More
Cases where substance use is raised turn on specific, documented facts rather than labels. Whether you are the parent raising the concern or the parent it is raised about, what matters is what the record shows about the child’s actual safety.
A Colorado divorce or parenting case is where those facts get tested. Schedule a free consultation and we will look at what you are working with.