By April D. Jones, Founder and CEO, Jones Law Firm, PC
Updated June 2026
“If I get ten more overnights, my child support drops.” A parent tells me this, having already run the child support calculation and built a parenting plan around it.
Parents misunderstand child support in a divorce with children and the mistakes cost them money, sometimes by assuming equal parenting time cancels out child support and other times by not knowing the overnight rules changed, because Colorado used to set a ninety-three-overnight threshold and that threshold is now gone. Child support is not a reward or a punishment or a fee for time with your kids. It is a legal obligation meant to help meet your children’s needs once one household becomes two.
How Does Colorado Calculate Child Support?
Colorado adds both parents’ adjusted gross incomes together, finds the basic support obligation for the number of children, and splits that obligation by each parent’s share of the combined income, then adjusts it for parenting time, work-related childcare, health insurance, and extraordinary medical costs. Starting March 1, 2026, the formula counts parenting time from the first overnight instead of the old ninety-three-overnight threshold, and the size of the credit is set by the statutory table and formula rather than a flat dollar cut for each overnight.
How the Income Shares Model Works in Colorado
Colorado uses an income shares model under C.R.S. § 14-10-115. The law combines both parents’ incomes, estimates what that household would have spent on the children if the family had stayed together, and splits that estimate between the parents in proportion to what each one earns, so a parent who brings in sixty percent of the combined income covers sixty percent of the basic obligation. Parenting time, childcare, health insurance, extraordinary medical costs, low-income provisions, and other statutory adjustments can move the final number from there.
This guideline child support number is presumed correct, but a court can depart from it when following the guideline would be unfair on the facts.
The child support calculation is only as good as the information put into it, and pay stubs, tax returns, business records, childcare receipts, insurance costs, and an honest overnight count all feed the result. Put in guesswork and you get a guess back. To see how the pieces fit, our Colorado child support page walks through the framework.
What the 2026 Law Changed (HB25-1159)
If you last looked into child support before 2026, the rules have changed. Colorado rewrote the guidelines in 2025, and the new support schedule and parenting-time credit took effect March 1, 2026. The two changes that matter most for the calculation: the income the guideline table covers now runs up to forty thousand dollars in combined monthly income, and parenting-time credit starts with the first overnight instead of the old ninety-three-overnight threshold. The size of that credit is set by the statutory table and formula, not a flat dollar cut for each overnight.
What the new law does not do is rewrite your existing order on its own. The new guideline applies to orders entered or modified under it starting March 1, 2026, so a parent who thinks an older order should change still has to meet the requirements for modification and get a new court order. The full before-and-after of the 2026 changes, and who they affect most, is laid out in our article on Colorado’s new child support law.
How Colorado Child Support Is Calculated, Step by Step
- Determine each parent’s income.
- Combine both incomes.
- Find the guideline support amount for the number of children.
- Allocate that amount proportionally between the parents.
- Apply the parenting-time adjustment.
- Add work-related childcare costs.
- Add health insurance costs attributable to the children.
- Allocate extraordinary medical expenses.
- Apply any statutory adjustments that apply to the case.
- Calculate the final support obligation.
Here is the proportional split in real numbers. If one parent earns six thousand dollars a month and the other earns four thousand, their combined income is ten thousand, so the first parent is responsible for sixty percent of the guideline obligation and the second for forty percent. That split is the starting point, and the parenting-time adjustment, childcare, health insurance, and any extraordinary medical costs move the final number from there.
The “More Time Will Lower My Support” Trap
Sometimes when you run the math a child in your home costs more than whatever reduction in support you’re fighting for, and that extra hundred or two hundred or three hundred dollars disappears the second the child is with you. Clothes, shoes, food, activities, school fees, and a couple of drive-thru runs with a teenager add up quickly.
A parent can fight for more overnights to lower their support, and it can lower it, but not always by enough to matter.
Support and parenting time are two different things, and they need to stay separate, because support is a calculation while parenting time is based on what is best for your kid. If you want more time with your kid, fight for the parenting time, not the support number.
Children Cost More Than the Support Payment
Child support doesn’t cover the full cost of raising a child, of course. The obvious costs are easy to name: braces, sports, a phone, shoes, school fees. The bigger ones are housing, food, transportation, and clothes you replace every time the child grows, and they rise as the child gets older. Whether the money runs through a support order or out of your own pocket, raising a child is expensive.
When the Fight Stops Being About Child Support
I had a dad who wanted the court to count mom’s overtime as income. It would have lowered his child support. The court decided her overtime was voluntary, not mandatory, and would not include it. He got so angry that at trial, in open court, he told the judge he did not want his son. The judge went off on him, and then did something better than just lecture. He told this man what a dad is, and why a boy needs his dad, and the man actually heard it. He went on to be a good dad. For a minute there, though, he had been ready to trade a whole kid for four hundred dollars.
You know a child support fight has stopped being about child support when the money spent fighting runs past the money being fought over. I have watched it turn into a proxy war in all kinds of ways. Self-employed parents spend real money fighting over calendars, client lists, appointment books, and receipts. I have seen hairstylists and barbers go after a copy of an appointment book, calling old clients to prove what was charged, because the appointment book was just the thing they could grab to keep fighting each other. I have seen a parent argue that a teenager’s minimum-wage shift at a fast-food counter should count, when that money went into the kid’s pocket for gas and food and the fees to fight it ran past the support ever would.
One argument judges are unmoved by is some version of “she doesn’t need the money,” or “why should I hand the other parent my money.” Whether a parent looks like they need the money is not part of the calculation. The guideline formula sets the number using both incomes, the parenting time, the children’s expenses, and the number of children. Children do not stop costing money because the adults are angry with each other.
Income Is Where It Gets Complicated
Every child support calculation starts with income. For a lot of parents, that number is not obvious.
Some parents have a single W-2 income that is easy to assess. Others are paid from multiple sources, including hourly wages, overtime, bonuses, commissions, distributions, investment income, rental income, or work that pays more in some months than in others. In any event, the court has to work from records it can verify, which is why tax returns, W-2s, 1099s, pay stubs, profit-and-loss statements, and bank records all matter.
Business income is where this can get hardest. One parent says that’s not really my income, the other says money is moving through that business and it should count, and both of them can be partly right, so a court may have to look past the headline number at gross receipts, ordinary and necessary expenses, retained earnings, distributions, and the personal costs the business covers for the owner. You sort that out with records.
When a Parent Earns Less Than They Could
When a parent is out of work or earning less than they could, Colorado law lets a court impute income to a parent who is voluntarily unemployed or underemployed, which means the support number can be built on what that parent is able to earn instead of the smaller figure on their current paycheck.
A parent who quits, cuts hours, or suddenly earns less right as the divorce begins should not assume the court will accept the new, smaller number, because once the court finds voluntary underemployment it can set support on earning capacity. There are a few specific exceptions. One is for a parent caring for a child under twenty-four months of age that the two parents share, and it does not erase that parent’s income. The court still uses whatever that parent actually earns, so part-time work counts as part-time income and no work counts as nothing, and the only thing the court holds back is imputing extra earning capacity on top of that.
Read the statute closely and the limit is right there. It applies to a child under twenty-four months “for whom the parents owe a joint legal responsibility,” which means a child the two of you have together, already in front of the court in this case. I have had clients with a new baby from a new relationship who were sure their income could not be imputed, and that is not how it reads. If the baby is not a joint child of this case, the exception does not apply, and the court can still impute. You may also see older articles, and even some law firm pages, citing thirty months instead of twenty-four, but that number is out of date.
Temporary Support and Changing Support Later
Child support can be ordered while a divorce is still pending, and a temporary order matters more than people expect, because it sets the monthly support number that your household runs on and shapes the settlement talks for the rest of the case. Keep a clear record of every payment you make under it, so you can show exactly what was paid if it is ever questioned.
After final orders enter, support does not change automatically because your income changed, your parenting time shifted, or childcare and insurance costs moved. Court orders remain in full force and effect until the old order is modified by the court. A change generally has to be substantial and continuing, and the life events that actually move a support order, up or down, are laid out in our article on changing a Colorado child support order.
Support keeps accruing at the ordered amount the entire time, even if the other side tells you it is fine to pay less. I have seen this one too many times. The other parent says do not worry about it, you are good, just keep paying what you can, and the paying parent relaxes. They feel grateful, so they give ground in other places. They stop pushing for the holiday time they wanted, they let small things slide, they cut the other side a break because the other side cut them one. Then the relationship goes sideways, and the same parent who said do not worry about it comes back and says you owe me all of this back support. And they are right. The court will agree with them, because a friendly text saying it was fine is not a court order.
When a client tells me the other side is different, that they are kind, that they do not want to rock the boat, my advice is simple. If they are so lovely, get a stipulation. Write out a few lines, lay out the deal, and ask them to sign it. That one ask shows you what they are really made of, and it protects you either way. If they sign, you have an enforceable agreement. If they will not, you just learned something important before it cost you. Either way, make it simple, make it plain, run it past your lawyer, and leave a line for the judge to sign. And if they will not do it, call us.
Keep Support and Parenting Time Separate
Support and parenting time are two different legal obligations, and a parent gets into trouble when they use one to force the other. I see it most with a young mom who was never married, raising her first baby alone, sure the baby is hers and hers only, while the dad wants in and asks why he should pay support if she will not let him see his son. One resolution I have seen work many times is to bring in family, the moms and the sisters, to circle around the dad and the new baby, so the mother can see her child will be safe with him and the father can find his footing. When it works, both parents get what they need. When it does not, it turns into the same custody battle with the grandparents at the table, and our job then is to make the best of it.
Then we say the hard part plainly. This baby needs to be supported for the next nineteen years, so we are going to get parenting time set and support ordered today, even while you are both just starting out. We use Dad’s income as it is right now, living at home, still figuring it out, and if it runs low enough, the low-income adjustment in the guideline is built for exactly that. Mom will likely owe support too, eventually, as she finishes school and grows into a career. Things will change. You will both grow into your incomes and your lives. What cannot wait is today, and today, support gets paid.
What Surprises Parents After the Order Enters
For all the months some parents spend fighting over the support amount, once the order enters, if you let it, it can become just another bill you pay without extra emotion. The parents who do best with it stop treating the first of the month as a referendum on the divorce. Set it up to pay automatically, keep your records, and put your energy into your kid instead of the transfer. The payment is going to happen either way. What you control is how much room it takes up in your head.
A Word on Online Calculators
An online child support calculator can give you a rough idea. It cannot give you a number you can rely on. A calculator is only as accurate as the law, income, overnights, and expenses you put into it, and one running on pre-2026 rules, or missing childcare and insurance, or guessing at overnights, will hand you an official-looking number that is wrong. Do not build a settlement around a figure you cannot explain.
Common Questions About Child Support in Colorado
How is child support calculated in Colorado?
Colorado uses an income shares model under C.R.S. § 14-10-115. It combines both parents’ incomes and accounts for the number of children, parenting time, health insurance, childcare, and other statutory factors, then divides the obligation in proportion to income.
Did Colorado child support law change in 2026?
Yes. House Bill 25-1159 rewrote several parts of Colorado’s child support guidelines, and the main changes took effect March 1, 2026: an updated support schedule, revised low-income provisions, a higher income range, and a new parenting-time credit that counts overnights from the first one.
Does shared parenting eliminate child support?
No. Shared parenting does not automatically erase a support obligation. Income, overnights, insurance, and childcare can still produce one.
Does Colorado still use the 93-overnight threshold?
No. Parenting-time credit can now begin with the first overnight, instead of requiring a parent to reach ninety-three overnights before any credit applied. The size of the adjustment is set by the statutory table and calculation, not a flat amount for each overnight.
Can income be imputed to a parent?
Sometimes. If a parent is voluntarily unemployed or underemployed, support can be based on earning ability rather than the current paycheck. Specific exceptions apply, including a parent caring for a joint child under twenty-four months.
Can child support be ordered while the divorce is pending?
Yes. A court can order temporary child support while the case is still open.
Can child support be changed later?
Yes. Child support may be modified when the requirements of C.R.S. § 14-10-122 are met. A substantial and continuing change is generally enough when the updated calculation would move the support amount by at least ten percent. The existing order stays in force until a court modifies it.
Can a parent withhold parenting time if support is unpaid?
No. Support and parenting time are separate legal issues with separate remedies.
Get the Number Right
Think back to the parent across my desk, certain that ten more overnights would shrink the payment. The honest version of that sentence is “I want more time with my kid,” and that is the better thing to fight for. Calculate support from the law and the real numbers, decide parenting time around your child, and keep the two from getting tangled, and a lot of the heat goes out of the fight.
If you are working through child support in a Colorado divorce right now and you want the number built correctly from the start, schedule a free consultation with our team. We choose sides. Yours.
This article is general legal information, not legal advice. Every family law matter is different, and the application of Colorado law depends on the specific facts of each case.