What Happens If One Parent Denies Parenting Time in Colorado

There is a specific statute for this, with a thirty-five day clock, a menu of remedies, and one thing the court has to order.

If the other parent is not following the parenting time order, you are not limited to contempt and you are not stuck waiting for your next hearing. Colorado has a dedicated enforcement statute with its own motion, its own timeline, and remedies aimed at the specific problem.

What follows is the process in order: what to file, what the court does with it, what it can order, and what it must order. It also covers the two situations parents most often get wrong, which are safety and support.

The Enforcement Route, Step by Step

The filing is a verified motion alleging that a parent is not complying with the parenting time order or schedule. It must also set out the possible sanctions the court may impose.¹ Either parent can file it, and the court can raise the issue on its own motion.

Within thirty-five days, the court reviews the motion and any response and decides whether there has been, or is likely to be, substantial or continuing noncompliance. That is a screen rather than a ruling, and it has three possible outcomes.

The court can deny the motion if the allegations are inadequate. It can set the matter for hearing as expeditiously as possible. Or it can send the parties to mediation and require a report back within sixty-three days.

The Judicial Branch uses a standard order form for the result, which is a useful preview of what a judge is choosing among.² Reading it before you file tells you what your motion needs to support.

What the Court Can Order, and What It Must

Once the court finds after a hearing that a parent violated the order, it shall issue an order. Which remedies go into that order is discretionary, and the statute says the list is not exhaustive.

Makeup parenting time comes with conditions worth knowing. It must be the same type and duration as what was denied, and it must generally happen within six months. It takes place at the time and in the manner chosen by the aggrieved parent, if that serves the child.

The court can also require a parental education program or family counseling at the noncomplying parent’s expense. It can require a bond to ensure future compliance, impose additional terms consistent with the existing order, or modify the order to meet the child’s best interests.

There are two penalties in the list. Contempt of court, carrying a fine or a jail sentence, and a separate civil fine of up to one hundred dollars per incident of denied parenting time.

One item is not discretionary. In addition to any other order, the court shall order a parent who failed to provide or exercise court-ordered parenting time to pay the aggrieved party. That covers attorney fees, court costs, and expenses.

Read that twice, because it cuts both ways. It reaches the parent who withholds time and the parent who does not show up for it. If you bring the motion and the other parent is found not in violation, the court may order you to pay theirs.

Support and Parenting Time Are Not Leverage for Each Other

This is the pairing that brings most parents to this question, and the statute addresses it directly. When the court imposes additional terms after a violation, it must separate the issues of child support and parenting time, and must not condition support on parenting time.

So withheld support is not a defense to withheld parenting time, and withheld parenting time is not a reason to stop paying. They are enforced separately, and doing either on your own creates a second problem rather than solving the first.

If support is the actual dispute, it has its own enforcement route. A Colorado child support order is calculated from both incomes and the overnight count, and it is enforced through its own mechanisms.

Not seeing your child on your scheduled days?

The thirty-five day clock starts when you file, and a documented pattern is what makes the motion work. Schedule a free consultation with Johnson Law Group and we will look at what you have and tell you whether it is ready to file.

If You Believe Your Child Is in Danger

If the danger is immediate, call 911 and file the motion the same day. Those are not alternatives, and the order matters.

The filing that exists for this is a motion to restrict parenting time alleging that the child is in imminent physical or emotional danger. The court must hear and rule on it within fourteen days.³

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 Colorado Supreme Court has described the filing itself as triggering that change in parenting time.

Keeping a child home without a court order is a last resort, and a court will look at it closely. It is not automatically held against you, because protective actions taken to shield a child from abuse are not counted against a parent under the best interests factors.

But it is not a plan either. The motion is what puts protection on a legal footing, and delay is what makes a genuine concern start to look like a pretext.

The standard is narrow. A court will not restrict parenting time unless it finds the time would endanger the child’s physical health or significantly impair emotional development.

The motion must state its basis with particularity rather than repeat the statutory phrase, and one that does not can be denied outright without a hearing.⁴ Colorado courts use a standard form, and a strong motion lays out specific incidents, dates, and what was observed, which is covered in how emergency custody orders work in Colorado.

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

Enforcement Is Not the Same as Modification

These get blended constantly, including in older material on this topic. Enforcement asks whether an existing order was violated. Modification asks whether circumstances have changed enough to justify a different order.

The enforcement statute can reach into modification territory. It lets the court modify the previous order to meet the child’s best interests, and lets it schedule a hearing on a motion to modify decision-making responsibility.

What it does not do is lower the modification thresholds. A motion to modify decision-making generally cannot be refiled within two years of a prior one.⁵

The same limit applies to a parenting time motion that would change which parent the child lives with most of the time. Smaller schedule adjustments do not carry that limit, and custody modification in Colorado turns on changed circumstances rather than on the violation itself.

The practical read is that enforcement is the faster and narrower tool. Use it for the violation in front of you, and treat a change to the plan as a separate decision with its own timing.

How a Pattern Affects the Rest of Your Case

Repeated interference does carry weight beyond the motion itself. One of the best interests factors asks about each party’s ability to encourage the sharing of love, affection, and contact between the child and the other party.⁶ A documented pattern of denial speaks to that factor directly.

That factor has a limit, and it is worth knowing from both sides. Where the court determines a party acted to protect the child from abuse or domestic violence, those protective actions are not counted against them.

So the factor is not a trap for a parent raising a genuine safety concern through the right channel. It is aimed at denial without a reason a court can recognize.

What to Do Now

Keep a dated log of every missed exchange, recording what was supposed to happen, what actually happened, and what was said. Contemporaneous records carry weight that recollection does not.

Save written communications in their original form rather than as summaries, because dates and context are what make them useful. Screenshots of a messaging thread beat a typed account of it.

Act promptly, and know why it matters here. Makeup time has to be made up within six months of the noncompliance, or within a year where the missed period or holiday cannot fit in six months.

Those windows run from the missed time rather than from your filing. A parent who waits a year may be past the window for the earliest incidents, whatever the pattern shows.

Consider whether mediation fits before you file, since the court may order it anyway. One limit is worth knowing. A court may not refer a case to mediation where a party claims physical or psychological abuse by the other party and states they are unwilling to mediate.⁷

Where it does fit, an agreement you reach yourselves can be entered as an order. How divorce mediation works in Colorado sets out what to prepare before the session.

Frequently Asked Questions

What can I do if my co-parent keeps denying my parenting time?

File a verified motion under Colorado’s parenting time dispute statute. Within thirty-five days the court decides whether to deny it, set a hearing, or order mediation with a report back in sixty-three days. If the court later finds a violation, it must issue an order.

Will the other parent have to pay my attorney fees?

If the court finds a violation, yes. The statute requires the court to order a parent who failed to provide or to exercise court-ordered parenting time to pay the aggrieved party attorney fees, court costs, and expenses. If you file and the other parent is found not in violation, the court may order you to pay theirs.

Can I stop paying child support if I am being denied parenting time?

No. The statute directs the court to separate the issues and not to condition child support on parenting time. Withholding support creates a second enforcement problem rather than solving the first.

Can I keep my child home if I think they are in danger?

If the danger is immediate, call 911 and file a motion to restrict parenting time the same day. That motion alleges imminent physical or emotional danger, must be heard within fourteen days, and the statute directs that parenting time be supervised during that window. Keeping a child home without an order is a last resort a court will examine closely, so the filing is what puts protection on a legal footing.

Does denying parenting time change custody?

Not automatically. A pattern of denial is relevant to the best interests factor about supporting the child’s relationship with the other parent. Changing the majority-time parent still runs through the modification thresholds.

Talk With a Colorado Family Law Attorney

Most of these motions turn on whether the record is ready before anything is filed. A clear log, original messages, and a specific ask are what move a judge from sympathy to an order.

Johnson Law Group handles parenting time enforcement 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 decide whether to file and what to file.

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