To file for child support in Colorado, you have two paths: apply through Colorado Child Support Services (CSS) at no cost, or file a Petition for Allocation of Parental Responsibilities in the district court where your child lives and pay a $252 filing fee.1Colorado Judicial Branch. List of Fees Either route requires detailed financial information from both parents, and if the parents were not married when the child was born, parentage must be established before any support order can be entered.
Choose Your Route First
The right path depends on what else you need resolved and how fast you want to move.
Colorado Child Support Services
CSS is a free, state-run program that will locate the other parent, establish parentage, set up a support and health-insurance order, collect payments, and enforce the order if payments stop.2Colorado Child Support Services. Colorado Child Support Services Program There is no application fee.3Colorado Child Support Services. Apply for Services You can apply online or mail a paper application to your county child support office.
Two limits worth knowing before you choose CSS. Cases move on the agency’s timeline, which tends to be slower than a court filing you push yourself. And CSS does not handle custody or parenting-time disputes, so if you need those decided you will still need a separate court action.
District Court
Filing a Petition for Allocation of Parental Responsibilities (APR) with the district court lets you address custody, parenting time, and child support in one case, and lets you control the pace. You pay the filing fee, prepare the forms, and arrange service on the other parent yourself. Most parents choose this route when they also need a custody order or want to move quickly.
Establish Parentage If You Were Not Married
A court cannot order support until both legal parents are identified. If the parents were married at the time of birth, parentage is presumed. If not, it has to be established through one of three routes: a voluntary acknowledgment signed at the hospital or through Colorado Vital Records, an administrative determination by a county child support office, or a court order.4Colorado Child Support Services. Parentage A parentage action can be started any time before the child turns 18. CSS handles parentage as part of your case if you apply through them. If you file in court, you may need to include a parentage claim in your petition or file a separate one.
Gather Financial Information Before You Start
Colorado calculates child support by formula, plugging both parents’ financial data into the Colorado Child Support Guidelines.5Colorado Child Support Services. Calculating Payments Thorough, accurate documents at the start are the single best thing you can do to avoid delays.
For each parent and each child, you will need full legal name, date of birth, Social Security number, and current address. Then collect the financial records:
- At least three months of recent pay stubs for both parents.
- Federal and state tax returns for the past two to three years.
- Proof of any other income: unemployment, self-employment earnings, rental income, disability, Social Security, pensions, dividends, or monetary gifts.
- The cost of the children’s health, dental, and vision insurance premiums.
- Receipts or invoices for work-related daycare or after-school care.
- The number of overnights each parent has with each child per year.
The overnight count matters more than most parents expect. If one parent has 92 or fewer overnights per year, the case uses Worksheet A. If both parents have at least 93 overnights, it uses Worksheet B, which usually produces a lower obligation for the paying parent.6Colorado Department of Human Services. Colorado Child Support Frequently Asked Questions Be ready to document that schedule.
Colorado defines income broadly, and the court can impute income to a parent who is voluntarily unemployed or underemployed based on what they could be earning given their education, work history, and job market.7Justia Law. Colorado Code 14-10-115 – Child Support Guidelines
Complete the Court Forms
If you are filing through the court, the standardized forms are available on the Colorado Judicial Branch website.8Colorado Judicial Branch. Self-Help Forms The core set for a new case:
- Case Information Sheet (JDF 1000), with basic identifying details.
- Petition for Allocation of Parental Responsibilities (JDF 1413), the formal request asking the court to establish child support, custody, and parenting time.
- Summons (JDF 1414), the notice to the other parent that a case has been filed and they must respond.
- Sworn Financial Statement (JDF 1111), a detailed disclosure of your monthly gross income, deductions, assets, and debts.
The Sworn Financial Statement is where parents most often run into trouble. It covers every income source, every monthly expense, and every asset and debt, and you sign it under penalty of perjury. Work from your pay stubs and tax returns, not from memory. Judges and opposing attorneys compare these statements against tax records, and inconsistencies create credibility problems that can hurt you on support and on other issues in the case.
File With the Court and Serve the Other Parent
File your completed forms with the district court clerk in the county where the child lives, either in person at the courthouse or through Colorado’s e-filing system. The filing fee for a new APR petition is $252.1Colorado Judicial Branch. List of Fees
If you cannot afford the fee, file a Motion to File Without Payment (JDF 205) along with a financial affidavit showing your income and expenses.9Colorado Judicial Branch. Chief Justice Directive 98-01 – Costs for Indigent Persons in Civil Matters The clerk reviews it and either grants or denies the waiver.
Serving the Other Parent
After filing, copies of the filed documents must be formally delivered to the other parent. You cannot do this yourself. Someone who is at least 18 years old and not a party to the case must hand-deliver the paperwork.10Colorado Judicial Branch. Colorado Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 4 – Process Your options are a qualifying friend or relative, the county sheriff’s office, or a private process server.11Judicial Legal Help Center. How Legal Papers are Delivered Private process servers typically charge between $20 and $100 depending on difficulty and location.
After delivery, the server completes a Proof of Service form, which you file with the court to prove the other parent received notice. If the other parent is avoiding service or cannot be located, Colorado allows alternative methods like service by publication, but those require a court order first.
One narrow boundary: if the other parent is on active-duty military service, federal law requires an affidavit of military status before any default order, and the court cannot enter default against a non-appearing service member without first appointing an attorney to protect their interests.12Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 50 USC 3931 – Protection of Servicemembers Against Default Judgments
What Happens After You File
Once served, the other parent has 21 days to file a Response (JDF 1420), or 35 days if they were served outside Colorado or by publication.13Colorado Judicial Branch. Respond to a Request for Custody and/or Child Support They can agree, disagree, or file their own counter-requests.
Shortly after filing, the court will schedule an Initial Status Conference. At this first hearing, a judge or magistrate confirms service, finds out what the parents agree on, and sets deadlines for the rest of the case. Both parents will be required to exchange Sworn Financial Statements and supporting documents by a specific date if they have not already. The court may also order mediation, where a neutral third party helps the parents try to reach an agreement before a contested hearing.
If the other parent fails to respond or appear, the court can enter a default order based solely on your filing. For civilian parents, ignoring the case usually means losing the chance to present their side of the financial picture.
Changing the Order Later
Once an order is in place, either parent can request a modification when there has been a substantial and continuing change in circumstances that would shift the support amount by at least 10%.14Colorado Child Support Services. Modifying Child Support A short illness or brief gap between jobs typically will not qualify, because the change needs to be ongoing.
You can request the modification through CSS if the agency manages your case, or by filing a motion with the court that issued the original order. Either way, bring updated financial documentation. Until the court approves a new amount, you owe whatever the current order says. Reducing or stopping payments on your own in anticipation of a modification is one of the fastest ways to end up in contempt of court.