Colorado Parenting Plan: JDF 1113, Filing, and Modifications

A Colorado parenting plan is the written document two parents file with the court to spell out how they will share decision-making and time with their child after a separation, divorce, or standalone custody case. The official form is JDF 1113 from the Colorado Judicial Branch, and the plan must serve the child’s best interests under C.R.S. § 14-10-124 before a judge will sign it into a binding court order.¹ Colorado uses the term “allocation of parental responsibilities” rather than “custody,” but the practical questions are the same: who decides, who has the child when, and who pays for what.

What You Have to Decide on JDF 1113

Form JDF 1113 runs ten pages, and the court expects every section filled in with real specifics rather than placeholders.² You and the other parent need to work through:

A school-year schedule showing who has the child each weekday and weekend, with pickup and drop-off times and who handles transportation.
A separate summer schedule.
A holiday rotation covering school breaks, religious and cultural holidays, state holidays, and birthdays.
The total number of overnights per year with each parent, which feeds the child support calculation.
Travel and vacation notice, including out-of-state and international trips, plus whether passports can be obtained.
How the child communicates with the other parent by phone or electronic means.
The child support amount and payment terms.
Which parent carries health insurance and how uncovered medical costs are split.
Which parent claims the child as a dependent for taxes each year.
How future disagreements get resolved: mediation, arbitration, or a parenting coordinator.
The requirement to get court permission before relocating with the child.

Both parents sign the form before the court reviews it. At the top you check one of three boxes: full agreement, partial agreement, or no agreement. With a full agreement the judge reviews the plan as a package. With a partial agreement the judge resolves only the disputed sections. With no agreement the judge decides everything after a hearing.²

Specificity is the thing judges look for. A schedule that says “every other weekend” without defined start times, end times, or exchange locations invites constant friction. Exact days, exact times, and clear handoff logistics are what gets a plan approved and keeps it workable.

Decision-Making and Parenting Time: The Two Core Choices

The form separates decision-making authority from parenting time, and they are decided independently.

Decision-making covers the major areas of the child’s life: education, medical and dental and mental health care, religious activities, extracurricular and recreational activities, and passport decisions.² You can share authority across all categories (joint), split categories between you, or give one parent sole authority. Joint decision-making means neither of you can enroll the child in a new school, schedule elective surgery, or sign them up for a travel sports team without the other’s agreement. Day-to-day decisions belong to whichever parent has the child at the time, and either parent can authorize emergency medical treatment when the child is with them.

Parenting time is the actual calendar: who has the child, when, and for how many overnights per year. The overnight count matters beyond the schedule itself. Colorado treats a parent with fewer than 93 overnights per year differently for child support than a parent with 93 or more, so the number you write on the form has direct financial consequences.

How a Judge Decides Whether to Approve the Plan

Whether reviewing an agreed plan or resolving a contested one, the judge applies the best-interests standard in C.R.S. § 14-10-124. Framing your plan around these factors is the most reliable way to get it approved without a fight:

Each parent’s wishes for the schedule.
The child’s wishes, if the child is mature enough to express a reasoned preference.
The child’s relationships with each parent, siblings, and other significant people.
The child’s adjustment to home, school, and community; courts are reluctant to uproot a child who is thriving.
Mental and physical health of everyone involved, though a disability alone cannot be grounds to deny parenting time.
Each parent’s willingness to encourage the child’s relationship with the other parent.
Each parent’s past involvement with the child.
How far apart the parents live and how that affects logistics.
Each parent’s ability to put the child’s needs ahead of their own.

The court cannot weigh these factors through a lens of religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, culture, race, ethnicity, national origin, or disability.¹ A judge also looks at whether joint decision-making is realistic given the parents’ track record of cooperation; if the two of you cannot communicate without conflict, dividing categories or giving one parent sole authority may be a stronger proposal than joint.

Filing the Plan and What It Costs

Once the plan is complete and signed, you file it with the clerk of the District Court in the relevant county. Attorneys typically use the Colorado Courts E-Filing system; self-represented parents can file in person or by mail.³

The Colorado Judicial Branch lists these filing fees for domestic relations matters as of 2026:⁴

Petition for divorce, separation, or annulment: $260.
Petition for allocation of parental responsibilities (standalone custody case): $252.
Response to a petition: $146.
Motion to modify an existing order filed more than 60 days after entry: $105.

If you cannot afford the fee, file form JDF 205, “Motion to Waive Fees,” with information about your financial situation.⁵ After filing, a judge or magistrate reviews the plan against the best-interests standard, and if everything checks out, signs it into a court order.

Parenting Class and Mediation Before Approval

Under C.R.S. § 14-10-123.7, a Colorado court may order parents to attend an education program about how separation and divorce affect children.⁶ The statute says “may,” not “shall,” but many judicial districts order the class in every case involving minor children, so assume you will need to complete one. The courses typically cost between $25 and $85 and can often be done online.

If you cannot agree on the terms of the plan, the court can refer the case to mediation under C.R.S. § 13-22-311.⁷ A neutral mediator helps you work through the disputed points. Anything you resolve goes back into JDF 1113; anything you do not resolve goes to the judge.

If There Is Domestic Violence or Child Abuse

The standard plan process changes significantly when domestic violence, child abuse, or child neglect is in the picture. Under C.R.S. § 14-10-124(4), the court must treat safety as the threshold question before weighing other best-interests factors.¹

If the court finds by a preponderance of the evidence that a parent has committed domestic violence, it cannot award joint decision-making over the other parent’s objection unless there is credible evidence the parties can cooperate safely. The plan itself may include supervised parenting time, no-contact provisions between the parents, exchange at a protected location, completion of a domestic violence treatment program, or other conditions the court finds necessary. A parent who left the home because of violence or threats cannot be penalized for that absence when the court evaluates the best-interests factors.

Mediation has a parallel safeguard: the court cannot send a case to mediation if a parent reports being a victim of physical or psychological abuse by the other parent and is unwilling to participate. Courts may also appoint a child and family investigator or parental responsibilities evaluator to examine the abuse claims and report back; those reports carry significant weight.

Changing the Plan Later

After the judge signs it, the plan is a court order, but it is not frozen. The standard for changing it depends on how big the change is.

For routine schedule adjustments that do not shift the child’s primary residence, the court can modify whenever doing so would serve the child’s best interests. The bar is relatively low: show changed circumstances and a benefit to the child.⁸

For substantial modifications that change which parent the child lives with most of the time, the standard is higher. The requesting parent must show circumstances have changed since the original order (or that new facts have emerged) and that the modification is necessary to serve the child’s best interests. The court presumes the existing arrangement should stay unless the parents agree, the child has already been integrated into the other parent’s household with consent, or the primary parent is relocating. Once a substantial-modification motion is decided, the losing party generally cannot refile for two years, with narrow exceptions for endangerment or planned relocation.

The court cannot restrict a parent’s time unless it finds the time would endanger the child’s physical health or significantly impair their emotional development, and any such restriction must include the specific factual findings supporting it.

Relocating With the Child

A parent who wants to move far enough to substantially change the geographic distance between the child and the other parent must give the other parent written notice as soon as practicable, stating where they intend to move, the reason for the move, and a proposed revised parenting plan.⁸ Colorado does not define that distance in miles. The question is whether the move meaningfully disrupts the child’s relationship with the other parent.

If the other parent objects, the court holds a hearing and weighs relocation-specific factors on top of the standard best-interests analysis: the relocating parent’s reasons for moving, the objecting parent’s reasons for opposing, each parent’s relationship history with the child, educational opportunities at both locations, extended family, likely impact on the child, and any history of domestic violence. Relocation hearings get priority on the court’s calendar.⁹

Enforcing the Plan When the Other Parent Violates It

A signed, court-approved parenting plan is a court order, and C.R.S. § 14-10-129.5 gives the court real tools when one parent ignores it:¹⁰

Makeup parenting time matching the type and duration of what was denied, generally within six months (within a year if a missed holiday cannot be replicated sooner).
A civil fine of up to $100 per incident of denied parenting time.
Contempt of court, which can carry a fine or jail time.
A bond to guarantee future compliance.
Mandatory parenting education at the noncomplying parent’s expense.
Family counseling at the noncomplying parent’s expense.
A hearing to modify the parenting plan entirely if violations keep happening.

The court must also order the noncomplying parent to pay the other parent’s attorney fees and court costs for bringing the enforcement action, which gives the enforcement framework real weight.

If You Are a Military Parent

Deployment and reassignment get their own federal protections. The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act allows an active-duty parent to request a stay of at least 90 days in any custody or parenting time proceeding when military duties prevent them from appearing. The servicemember files an application confirming active duty, explaining how service affects their ability to appear, and including a letter from a commanding officer confirming leave is not authorized. Additional stays can follow, and a default judgment entered during service can be set aside if military duties materially affected the parent’s ability to defend.

Under 50 U.S.C. § 3938, no court can treat a parent’s deployment or potential deployment as the sole factor in permanently modifying custody or parenting time.¹¹ Temporary adjustments are allowed; using deployment alone to strip a parent’s time permanently is not. Colorado also lets a deploying parent temporarily delegate decision-making authority or parenting time to an adult family member or someone close to the child, with the court specifying exactly which decision-making powers transfer during the deployment.

1
FindLaw. Colorado Code 14-10-124 – Best Interests of the Child
2
Colorado Judicial Branch. JDF 1113 – Parenting Plan
3
Colorado Judicial Branch. E-Filing Overview
4
Colorado Judicial Branch. List of Fees
5
Colorado Judicial Branch. Motion to Waive Fees
6
Justia. Colorado Code 14-10-123.7 – Parental Education – Legislative Declaration
7
FindLaw. Colorado Code 13-22-311 – Court Referral to Mediation – Duties of Mediator
8
Justia. Colorado Code 14-10-129 – Modification of Parenting Time
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Colorado Judicial Branch. Relocating Minor Children
10
FindLaw. Colorado Code 14-10-129.5 – Dispute Resolution and Enforcement of Parenting Time Orders
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 50 USC 3938 – Child Custody Protection