Your parenting plan shapes your children’s week, their holidays and how their parents make decisions together. Resolvit Mediations helps Colorado Springs parents build that plan themselves, instead of leaving it to a judge who has met your family once.
We mediate new parenting plans during divorce or separation, plans for unmarried parents, and changes to existing orders. Sessions run on Zoom or in person.
Mediation Is Required for Contested Parenting Issues in El Paso County
If you and the other parent disagree about parenting issues, the 4th Judicial District (El Paso and Teller Counties) requires mediation or another form of dispute resolution before the court decides. Its case management order allows exceptions, including cases involving domestic violence.
You can use the court’s Office of Dispute Resolution or a private mediator. A private mediator like Resolvit offers more scheduling flexibility, evening or weekend sessions, and Zoom. Resolvit is happy to accommodate scheduling that is convenient to meet the parties’ schedules, including weekends and evenings.
What Colorado Means by “Custody”
Colorado doesn’t use the word “custody” in its statutes. Courts allocate parental responsibilities, which have two parts (C.R.S. 14-10-124):
- Parenting time: when the children are with each parent
- Decision-making responsibility: who makes major decisions about education, health care, religion and extracurricular activities, and whether those decisions are joint or sole
Every decision is made in the child’s best interests, with the child’s safety as the court’s top consideration.
What Goes Into a Colorado Parenting Plan
Colorado’s standard Parenting Plan form (JDF 1113) is a useful checklist. In mediation, we work through each part:
- Regular schedule: school-year and summer parenting time, such as 2-2-3, week-on/week-off or alternating weekends
- Holidays and birthdays: Thanksgiving, winter break, spring break, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, and how they rotate
- Decision-making: joint or sole for each major area
- Exchanges: where, when and who handles transportation
- Communication: how parents share information and how kids reach the other parent
- Travel and relocation: notice requirements for out-of-state trips or a move
- Child support: calculated under Colorado’s guidelines (C.R.S. 14-10-115); see our Financial Modeling service
Parents of children under 18 in El Paso County must also complete a Level 1 parenting class within 42 days of filing. CASA of the Pikes Peak Region offers it online or in person for $65 per parent.
You Know Your Kids Better Than a Courtroom Ever Will
The schedule, the holidays, the everyday calls about your children: these are decisions you and your co-parent are better placed to make than anyone who has met your family once. Mediation gives you a calm, private space to work through them together, at a pace that respects you both. We are here whenever you are ready to start the conversation.
Schedule Your Free 30-Minute ConsultationChanging an Existing Parenting Plan
Kids grow, jobs change, and parenting schedules don’t always work as originally planned. Mediation can help parents reach agreements that reflect their family’s changing needs while keeping the children’s best interests first.
- Parenting Time: Colorado courts may modify parenting-time arrangements when doing so serves the child’s best interests. More substantial changes, particularly those changing which parent has the majority of parenting time, are subject to additional legal requirements. Restricting parenting time generally requires a finding of endangerment. (C.R.S. § 14-10-129.)
- Decision-Making Responsibility: Changing who makes major decisions about a child’s education, healthcare, and other important matters involves stricter legal standards. Generally, another motion cannot be filed within two years after a previous modification motion was resolved unless the court finds a qualifying risk to the child’s physical health or emotional development. Other statutory requirements also apply. (C.R.S. § 14-10-131.)
- Relocation: When a parent with the majority of parenting time plans to move with the child in a way that substantially affects the child’s geographical ties to the other parent, Colorado law requires written notice and a proposed revised parenting-time plan. If court modification is necessary, the court considers the child’s best interests and specific relocation factors. (C.R.S. § 14-10-129.)
At Resolvit Mediations of Colorado, we help parents work together to develop practical, mutually acceptable modifications to their parenting plans, reducing conflict and potentially avoiding costly court proceedings. Any changes requiring court approval must be submitted to the court.
How Parenting Plan Mediation Works
- Free consultation to talk about your children, your schedules and the issues in dispute
- Mediation sessions focused on what works for your children, not on who wins
- A written parenting plan reflecting your agreement
- Court approval. The judge reviews every parenting term against your children’s best interests before it becomes an order (C.R.S. 14-10-112)
Everything said in mediation is confidential, with narrow exceptions such as threats to a child’s safety (C.R.S. 13-22-307).
When Mediation Isn’t Safe
If there’s been domestic violence or abuse, you don’t have to mediate. Colorado courts won’t refer a case to mediation when a party reports abuse and is unwilling to participate (C.R.S. 13-22-311). Please contact an attorney or a domestic violence advocate.
Shape Your Children’s Future Together
Your parenting plan shapes your children’s week, their holidays, and how the two of you make decisions for years to come. Those choices belong with the people who know your kids best. Mediation gives you a private, neutral space to work through them together and leave with a written plan you both stand behind. A free 30-minute consultation is the easiest place to start.
Schedule Your Free 30-Minute ConsultationFrequently Asked Questions
Is child custody mediation required in Colorado Springs?
Yes, for contested cases. The 4th Judicial District requires mediation or another form of dispute resolution in domestic cases with contested issues, unless the court waives it, for example because of domestic violence.
How do I change a parenting plan in Colorado?
If both parents agree, you can submit the change to the court for approval. If you don’t agree, a parent files a motion to modify, and in El Paso County you’ll likely need to mediate first.
Will a judge approve the plan we create in mediation?
Yes. A judge reviews every parenting term against your children’s best interests and isn’t bound by your agreement, but courts generally approve plans that both parents support.
Does the parenting plan set child support?
Child support is calculated separately under Colorado’s guidelines. It’s usually addressed in the same mediation. The court can approve a different amount only with findings explaining why.
Build a Plan That Works for Your Kids
A 30-minute consultation costs nothing and helps you understand what parenting plan mediation would look like for your family.
Call 720-434-8581 or schedule online.