Colorado Child Support Explained: How Amounts Are Calculated, Modified, and Enforced

Colorado calculates child support using an income shares model: both parents’ incomes are combined, matched against a statutory schedule, and then divided in proportion to what each parent earns. Colorado child support is not a flat percentage of one parent’s paycheck, and it is not something a judge sets by feel.

What makes the number move is the detail: what counts as income, how many overnights each parent has, and which adjustments apply. This guide walks through the calculation, when an order can be changed, and what happens when payments stop.

Colorado’s Income Shares Approach

The guideline starts from a simple premise: a child should receive roughly the same proportion of parental income they would have received if the parents lived together. Colorado’s schedule of basic child support obligations converts combined parental income and the number of children into a base support figure. ^[1]

The figure the schedule uses is adjusted gross income, not raw gross income. Gross income is reduced by statutory deductions, including preexisting court-ordered support actually paid and an adjustment for other children a parent is legally responsible for. ^[2]

The base obligation is then split according to each parent’s share of the combined adjusted gross income. A parent earning 60 percent of the combined total carries roughly 60 percent of the base obligation before further adjustments.

Adjustments come next. Work-related and education-related child care costs, health insurance premiums for the child, and extraordinary medical expenses are added to the base and divided proportionally.

What Counts as Gross Income

Colorado defines gross income broadly. ^[3] It reaches well past salary to include most money a parent actually receives, and the statute lists the specific categories rather than leaving it to interpretation.

• Wages, salaries, tips, and commissions
• Payments received as an independent contractor, which count as self-employment income
• Bonuses, commissions, and severance pay
• Overtime pay, but only when the employer requires the overtime as a condition of employment
• Pensions and retirement benefits
• Rents, royalties, dividends, and interest
• Social security benefits received by a parent, with specific statutory exceptions
• Money a self-employed parent draws for personal use but deducts as a business expense

A short list of items is excluded, including child support received for other children and benefits from means-tested public assistance programs. 

How Parenting Time Affects the Number

Overnights matter, and how they matter changed recently. House Bill 25-1159 revised the guideline, with the core calculation changes taking effect March 1, 2026. ^[4]

Under the current framework, each parent’s number of overnights maps to a parenting time credit percentage in a statutory table. That percentage is multiplied by the total basic child support obligation to produce the parenting time credit, and the resulting shared parenting adjustment is applied in the worksheet calculation. ^[5]

Credit begins with the first overnight and scales upward. The pre-March 1, 2026 structure, which gave no credit at all below 93 overnights and then shifted sharply at that line, no longer applies to orders calculated under the current guideline.

The credit is not linear, so a parent with 25 percent of the overnights does not receive a 25 percent reduction. Because the table now drives the math this directly, the parenting time arrangement in your case has a direct and traceable effect on the support figure.

When and How Support Changes

A Colorado child support order can be modified only on a showing of changed circumstances that are substantial and continuing. ^[6] Modification applies to installments accruing after the motion is filed, not to support that came due earlier.

The statute puts a number on “substantial.” If rerunning the guideline on current circumstances produces less than a ten percent change in the monthly amount, that is deemed not to be a substantial and continuing change. ^[7]

Colorado appellate decisions interpreting this provision have treated the ten percent figure as a rebuttable presumption rather than an absolute bar, so a parent below that line may still be able to make a case. That reading comes from case law rather than from the text of the statute itself.

The practical starting point is to run the current numbers before filing anything.

Enforcement When Payments Stop

Income assignment is the default enforcement mechanism, not a last resort. Colorado law provides for support to be withheld directly from an obligor’s income, with the withholding taking priority over most other legal process against the same income. ^[8]

Beyond income withholding, additional tools may be available to Colorado Child Support Services and the courts, including tax refund interception, credit bureau reporting, license suspension, liens, and contempt proceedings. These are not imposed automatically in every case of nonpayment, and which remedies come into play depends on the circumstances and who is pursuing enforcement.

Unpaid installments do become final money judgments as they come due and go unpaid, which is why arrears keep their force even when no one is actively collecting.

When Support Ends

Support generally terminates automatically when the last or only child turns 19, without either parent filing a motion. ^[9] Several exceptions can extend it: a written stipulation between the parents, a child who is mentally or physically disabled, or a child still in high school, where support continues to the end of the month following graduation.

The statute also recognizes events that emancipate a child earlier, so age 19 is the general rule rather than the whole picture. Marriage and entry into active military duty are examples.

One point trips up a lot of parents. When there are two or more children and the oldest turns 19, support does not drop automatically. The order stays as written until someone files to modify it.

Frequently Asked Questions

How is child support calculated in Colorado?

Colorado uses an income shares model. Both parents’ monthly adjusted gross incomes are combined, matched against the state’s schedule of basic support obligations, and then divided in proportion to each parent’s share of that combined income, with further adjustments for overnights, health insurance, and work-related child care.

What is the income shares model in Colorado?

The income shares model estimates what the parents would have spent on the child if the household had stayed together, then splits that figure between them based on each parent’s share of the combined income. It is the framework Colorado’s guideline is built on.

How much is child support in Colorado?

There is no flat amount. The figure depends on both parents’ incomes, the number of children, the number of overnights each parent has, and adjustments for costs like health insurance and work-related child care. Two families with similar incomes can end up with different orders.

When does child support end in Colorado?

Support generally terminates when the last or only child turns 19. Exceptions can extend it, including a written stipulation between the parents, a child who is mentally or physically disabled, or a child still in high school, in which case support continues to the end of the month following graduation. Other events, such as marriage or active military duty, can emancipate a child earlier.

How Johnson Law Group Can Help

Support cases turn on inputs, not arguments. Getting income, overnights, and adjustments documented correctly is what determines the number, and Johnson Law Group built this guide to be the North Star parents reach for before they are asked to agree to a figure they do not fully understand.

Our attorneys on our team handle support calculations, modifications, and enforcement across Colorado, including cases where one parent’s income is genuinely hard to pin down. We can give you a clear read on what the guideline produces in your situation and where the real leverage is.

We have offices across Colorado and offer virtual appointments. Schedule a no-pressure consultation to review your support situation.

This article is general information about Colorado law and is not legal advice. Outcomes depend on the specific facts of your case, the terms of your own orders, and the judge assigned to your matter. Speak with a Colorado family law attorney before acting.

Sources