What to Do If Your Child’s Other Parent Is Doing Something Dangerous

Start with how urgent it is. Colorado gives you three different routes, and they run on different standards and different clocks.

If you are worried about what happens at the other parent’s house, the first question is not what the law says. It is how fast you need to move.

Colorado has three separate routes, and they are not interchangeable. Picking the wrong one costs time, and in this area time is usually the thing you have least of.

Start Here: Which Situation Are You In?

Ask yourself three questions in this order. Is my child in danger right now, today or at the next exchange? If yes, the emergency route is the one, and it is covered first below.

Has the other parent been convicted of a crime? If so, there is a separate objection process that does not require you to prove anything about danger, and it puts the burden on them.

Is this a pattern that has developed over time, without an immediate crisis or a conviction? That is a modification question. It uses the same endangerment standard without the burden shift, on a slower clock.

Many situations are more than one of these. The order above is the order to work through them, because the fastest route that fits is usually the one to file first.

What You Might Be Seeing

Parents often sense something is wrong before they can name it. The signs below are the ones most commonly described, and they are worth writing down with dates when you notice them.

Physical and care signs include a child who seems malnourished or dehydrated, unexplained bruises or injuries, and poor hygiene or consistently dirty clothing. Missed medical appointments without explanation and excessive absence or lateness at school belong on the list too.

Behavioral signs include a child who is withdrawn or persistently sad, who describes being left alone, or whose behavior changes around exchanges. Some children begin mirroring what they are exposed to, through aggression, cruelty to people or animals, threats, or substance use.

None of this proves anything on its own, and that is important to say. Every one of these signs has innocent explanations, and a court will want to know what else was going on. What they are good for is telling you it is time to document carefully and get advice.

Route One: The Emergency Motion

If the danger is immediate, call 911 first. Then file a motion to restrict parenting time, which the Judicial Branch provides a standard form for.¹ It is filed as a motion with an affidavit setting out what you have seen.

The motion alleges that the child is in imminent physical or emotional danger. The court must hear and rule on it within fourteen days of filing.²

The statute directs that any parenting time during that period be supervised by a suitable unrelated third party or a licensed mental health professional. The form tells the responding party that the hearing happens if the court grants the motion.

The motion has to state the basis with particularity rather than repeat the statutory phrase, and one that does not can be denied outright without a hearing.³ Specific incidents, dates, and what you observed are what carry it, and how emergency custody orders work in Colorado walks through what the filing requires.

There is risk on this side too. If the court finds the motion was substantially frivolous, substantially groundless, or substantially vexatious, it must order you to pay the other parent’s reasonable attorney fees and costs.

Route Two: Objecting After a Conviction

This route is separate, and it is the one most parents have never heard of. If the other parent has been convicted of certain crimes, you can file an objection to parenting time without having to prove danger first.

The listed crimes cover murder in the first or second degree, sexual assault, sexual assault on a child, and unlawful sexual contact where the victim was compelled to submit. They also cover enticement of a child, incest and aggravated incest, and sexual exploitation of a child. A further group involves child prostitution, trafficking, and procurement.

Child abuse is on the list, but only its most serious forms, meaning those causing death or serious bodily injury to the child. Misdemeanor child abuse does not open this route, which matters because many child abuse charges are misdemeanors.

Two extensions matter and are easy to miss. The objection also reaches an equivalent conviction from another state or a military or federal jurisdiction.

It also reaches a conviction for any crime where the court found on the record that the underlying facts included an act of domestic violence. That finding has to include that the act posed a potential threat or endangerment to the child, the other parent, or another custodian.

The procedure then favors you. The other parent has twenty-one days from notice to respond, and if they do not respond their parenting time is suspended until further order of the court.

If they do respond and object, a hearing is held within thirty-five days. At that hearing the burden is on them to prove that their parenting time is in the child’s best interests.

The court may also order them to pay the costs of the hearing, including your reasonable attorney fees. For an equivalent out-of-state conviction on the sex and exploitation offenses, the court must order an evaluation and risk assessment in Colorado at the convicted parent’s expense.

Not sure how urgent this is?

That judgment is hard to make about your own family, and the three routes have very different clocks. Schedule a free consultation with Johnson Law Group and we will tell you which one fits what you are seeing.

Route Three: Modification

Where there is no immediate crisis and no conviction, the route is a motion to modify or restrict parenting time on the ordinary timeline. This is the slower path, and the standard is specific.

A court will not restrict parenting time unless it finds that the parenting time would endanger the child’s physical health or significantly impair emotional development. In any order imposing or continuing a restriction, the court must enumerate the specific factual findings supporting it.

There is also a timing limit worth knowing. A motion that would change which parent the child lives with most of the time generally cannot be refiled within two years of a prior one. The exception is affidavits showing the child’s present environment may endanger them.

A restriction turns on the endangerment finding above. A change to which parent the child lives with most of the time asks something further, which is whether circumstances have changed, as custody modification in Colorado sets out.

Substance Use and Domestic Violence

These two come up most often, and the law treats them differently from each other.

Substance use is not its own best-interests factor. It reaches the court through the endangerment standard and the factors, which means what matters is the effect on the child rather than the use itself. Driving under the influence with the child in the car, or being unable to supervise, is the kind of fact that moves a court.

The 2026 safety conditions reach it directly in one situation. Where the court has made an abuse finding, the conditions it imposes on parenting time can include abstaining from intoxicating substances before and during that time.

Domestic violence is addressed directly. Colorado declares that children have the right to be emotionally, mentally, and physically safe in either parent’s care.⁴

They also have the right to reside in and visit homes free of domestic violence and child abuse or neglect. Those are declared rights rather than a presumption about decision-making.

The operative rules changed in 2026. Where abuse is alleged, the court must make findings on the record by a preponderance of the evidence.⁵

Those findings address whether a party committed domestic violence, child abuse or neglect, or sexual assault that resulted in the conception of the child. If the court so finds, it must impose conditions on parenting time that ensure safety.

The same act bars mutual decision-making over the other party’s objection after such a finding. The exception is where the court makes specific findings that it can occur without coercion, intimidation, retaliation, or risk of harm. Where the pattern is control rather than open violence, coercive control in a Colorado custody case is now part of the statutory definition.

One more provision helps a worried parent. If a court orders unsupervised parenting time despite information that a parent committed domestic violence, child abuse, or coercive control, it has to explain itself. The statement goes in writing or on the record, setting out why that serves the child.

What Helps, and What Does Not

Dated, specific records beat general worry every time. Write down what happened, when, who else saw it, and what your child said in their own words rather than your summary of it.

Third-party records carry weight because they do not depend on either parent. School attendance and nurse records, medical and dental records, police reports, and counselor records all exist outside the dispute.

Keep your own conduct clean while you gather. Withholding the child without a court order is a last resort a court will examine closely, and it can become the subject rather than the conduct you are worried about.

What does not help is a filing built on a general feeling. The emergency route in particular punishes vague allegations, and a denied motion makes the next one harder.

Frequently Asked Questions

My child is in danger right now. What do I do?

Call 911 if the danger is immediate, then file a motion to restrict parenting time the same day. The motion alleges imminent physical or emotional danger. The court must hear and rule on it within fourteen days, and the statute directs that parenting time during that window be supervised.

What if the other parent has a criminal conviction?

There is a separate route. For certain convictions you can file an objection to parenting time, and the other parent has twenty-one days to respond. If they do not respond, their parenting time is suspended until further order, and if they do, the burden at the hearing is on them.

Does a DUI mean the other parent loses parenting time?

Not by itself. Substance use reaches the court through the endangerment standard and the best interests factors, so what matters is the effect on the child. A DUI with the child in the car is a very different fact from one without.

Can I just keep my child home if I am worried?

Withholding without a court order is a last resort a court will examine closely. If the court finds you acted to protect your child from abuse or domestic violence, those actions are not held against you. That exception applies under the factor about supporting the other parent’s relationship.

Is there a presumption against a parent who has committed domestic violence?

The statute does not frame it as a presumption. Where abuse is alleged, the court must make findings on the record by a preponderance, and if it finds domestic violence it must impose safety conditions on parenting time. Mutual decision-making is barred over the other party’s objection absent specific findings that it can happen safely.

Talk With a Colorado Family Law Attorney

The hardest part of this is usually judging urgency about your own child. It is easy to file an emergency motion on facts that needed a modification, or to wait months on facts that needed an emergency motion.

Johnson Law Group handles parenting time and safety matters across the state, and you can learn more about our approach on our Colorado family law page. You can find our offices in Denver, Colorado Springs, Commerce City, Englewood, and Fort Collins. You can also read about the background and experience of the attorneys on our team.

Schedule a free consultation and we will help you work out which route fits and what to gather first.

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