Understanding the Best Interests of the Child Standard in Colorado

When a relationship ends, decisions about your children usually matter more to you than anything else in the case. Colorado decides those questions under one standard: the best interests of the child, with the child’s safety given paramount consideration.

Colorado does not start from a presumption that parents will share decisions equally, and it does not reserve individual decision-making for extreme cases. The court allocates parenting time and decision-making responsibility on the facts, and it can assign decisions to both parents, split them by category, or give them to one parent.

If you are concerned about how this standard affects your own case, the family law attorneys at Johnson Law Group can walk you through it, so schedule a consultation.

Best Interest of the Child

Focusing on the child’s best interest means that decisions about parenting time and decision-making aim at the child’s happiness, security, and emotional and mental development. Other factors involved in determining a child’s best interest include his or her care, protection, safety, as well as the child’s specific academic, emotional, or physical needs.

A close, loving relationship with both parents usually serves the child, but it is hard to protect when parenting time and decision-making in Colorado are disputed. In any custody dispute, it is critical to keep your focus on the best interest of the child.

The choices made now, by you or by the court, will affect your child’s life in many ways. Whatever is decided will affect their development as well as their long-term relationship with you.

What the Court Actually Weighs

Colorado law does not presume that either parent, mother or father, is better able to serve the child’s best interests because of their sex. Both start on the same footing, and the outcome turns on the facts of your case rather than on which parent is asking.

The statute lists factors for parenting time and directs the court to weigh all relevant ones, so the list below is where it starts rather than where it stops.¹

• What each parent wants the schedule to look like
• What the child wants, if the child is mature enough to express reasoned and independent preferences
• The child’s relationships with each parent, with siblings, and with anyone else who significantly affects the child’s wellbeing
• The child’s adjustment to home, school, and community
• 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
• How close the parents live to each other
• Each parent’s ability to put the child’s needs ahead of their own

Decision-making carries its own short list. The court looks at whether the two of you can cooperate and decide together, and whether your past involvement shows shared values and real time commitment. It also asks whether sharing decisions would lead to more contact with both parents.

No single factor decides the case. The judge builds a picture from all of them, which is why what you can document matters more than what you can argue.

Preparing for a Hearing

Prepare to show the factors rather than restate them. Bring a written parenting proposal with specific times and locations, a calendar of the schedule you have actually been following, and records of your involvement in school and medical care.

Concrete logistics carry weight. Be ready to explain who handles school pickup, how the schedule fits each parent’s work hours, who arranges medical appointments, and how the child’s activities continue across both homes.

Know what you can accept before you walk in. Answer the question asked, keep it factual, and avoid characterizing the other parent, because how you support the child’s relationship with the other parent is part of the record.

Safety

Where domestic violence or child abuse is claimed, the court decides by a preponderance of the evidence whether it happened. Colorado’s definition covers coercive control and economic abuse, not only physical harm, and applies whether or not the conduct was a crime.

Where the court finds by a preponderance of the evidence that a parent committed domestic violence, it is not in the child’s best interests to allocate mutual decision-making.² The exception is credible evidence that the parents can make cooperative decisions without coercion, intimidation, retaliation, or risk of harm. The court must also set conditions that keep the child and the abused parent safe.

A court can restrict parenting time, generally only on a finding that the time would endanger the child’s physical health or significantly impair the child’s emotional development. Any order restricting parenting time has to spell out the specific findings behind it.

If you have any questions regarding how these factors may affect your parental rights, the family lawyers at Johnson Law Group can explain them.

You and Your Child’s Best Interest

A parent involved in a custody situation has the ongoing opportunity to show the court that the child’s best interests are a top priority. Demonstrating that you are actively involved in the child’s life and that you provide attentive, loving care is crucial. Staying involved in your child’s activities and education matters, as does showing that you can nurture your child through the parenting decisions you make.

The court does look at whether each parent supports the child’s relationship with the other, so communication that stays workable usually helps. Where there has been abuse, the court does not expect you to rebuild that relationship, and your safety comes first.

Questions Parents Ask

Can we decide custody ourselves?

Yes. You can agree on a parenting plan, and an agreement usually costs less and moves faster than a contested hearing. The court still reviews the plan against the best-interests standard before it becomes an order.

What evidence actually helps?

Evidence of what each parent does day to day helps most. Records show who arranges medical care and school logistics, how each parent supports the child’s bond with the other, and what the routine looks like in each home.

Does the court rank the factors?

No. The statute lists the factors without ranking them, and no single one decides the case. Age and the parent-child relationship matter, but they do not outweigh the others by default.

Speak With a Colorado Child Custody Attorney

A custody conflict is frustrating and often frightening, and the decisions made now shape years that follow. Knowing what the court weighs is the first step toward building a record that reflects how you actually parent.

Schedule a free, no-pressure consultation with the attorneys at Johnson Law Group through our Colorado offices and get a clear read on where you stand. Johnson Law Group handles parenting cases across Colorado, and we will serve as your North Star from here.

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