Colorado rewrote the arithmetic of child support this year. House Bill 25-1159, signed May 31, 2025, rebuilt the schedule of basic child support obligations in C.R.S. § 14-10-115, raised the top of the schedule from $30,000 to $40,000 a month in combined income, scrapped the 93-overnight cliff in favor of a credit for every overnight, and replaced the old low-income tiers with a self-support reserve that moves with the state minimum wage. The calculation changes took effect March 1, 2026. They apply to orders entered or modified on or after that date. Orders already in place did not change on their own.
This is the first of three posts on the new law. It covers what changed and who feels it. The second looks closely at the parenting-time table, and the third at what happens above the $40,000 line, where most of the families I represent live.
A New Schedule and a Higher Ceiling
The schedule of basic child support obligations is the table at the center of every Colorado support calculation. Combined income runs down the left side, number of children across the top, and the cell where they meet is the presumptive amount both parents together owe before add-ons. HB25-1159 replaced every number in that table to reflect current costs of raising children, and it added 200 rows. The old schedule stopped at $30,000 a month. The new one runs in $50 steps to $40,000, or $480,000 a year.
At the new top row, the basic obligation is $3,398 a month for one child, $4,992 for two, $5,817 for three, $6,498 for four, $7,148 for five, and $7,769 for six or more. Those figures are split between the parents in proportion to income, then adjusted for child care, health insurance, and extraordinary expenses.
For families between $360,000 and $480,000 a year, the change moves the case from discretionary argument into the table. For families above $480,000, the rule is what it was: the court may use discretion, but the presumptive obligation cannot be less than the top-of-schedule figure. For two children, that floor rose from $3,819 under the old schedule to $4,992, about 30 percent, and the higher floor carries into every above-guideline case opened or modified from here on.
Every Overnight Counts
For decades, Colorado child support turned on whether each parent had the children more than 92 overnights a year. Cross that line and the case moved from Worksheet A to Worksheet B, the basic obligation was multiplied by 1.5, and the paying parent got a substantial credit. Fall short by one night and the parent got nothing for the time. The 93rd overnight was worth real money, and people fought over it for that reason.
That is over. Shared physical care under § 14-10-115(3)(h) now means each parent keeps the children for at least one overnight a year. The 1.5 multiplier is gone. The basic obligation comes straight off the schedule and is divided by income, as in a sole-care case. Then each parent gets a credit equal to the total basic obligation multiplied by the percentage listed for that parent's overnights in a new table at § 14-10-115(8)(h). The table runs from zero overnights at 0.00 percent to 365 at 100 percent. Every other weekend, 52 nights, earns 5.27 percent. A third of the year, 122 nights, earns 22.54 percent. A true 50/50 schedule, 182.5 nights, earns exactly 50 percent. The credit lags the time share at the low end on purpose: a parent with the children one weekend in two is not carrying a proportionate share of the other home's fixed costs.
One safety valve carried over. A parent with shared parenting time never owes more than that same parent would owe with no overnights at all. Overnights can lower support. They cannot raise it.
When siblings are on different schedules, the statute now averages them: add each child's overnights with a parent and divide by the number of children on the worksheet. That rule applies to split-care cases too, which used to run on a separate method.
The Self-Support Reserve
The most structural change is a new defined term. The self-support reserve, at § 14-10-115(3)(g.5), is the state minimum wage times 29 hours a week, times 50 weeks, divided by 12. With Colorado's 2026 minimum wage at $15.16 an hour, the reserve is $1,831.83 a month. It resets every January when the minimum wage adjusts.
The old law used a fixed $1,500 line that had not moved in years. Tying the line to the minimum wage means the low-income rules keep pace without another trip through the legislature.
The Low-Income Tiers, Rebuilt
Section 14-10-115(7)(a) now sorts paying parents into bands by monthly adjusted gross income.
At or below $650, the order is $10 a month regardless of the number of children, unless shared parenting time produces a presumptive figure below $10, in which case the lower figure applies.
Above $650 and up to the self-support reserve, the basic obligation is reduced to a flat amount: $50 a month for one child, $70 for two, $90 for three, $110 for four, $130 for five, and $150 for six or more. Add-ons for child care, health insurance, and extraordinary medical expenses can still be added, but the total is capped at 10 percent of the parent's adjusted gross income. The old cap was 20 percent. The reduced amount does not apply if shared parenting time would produce a lower figure.
Above the reserve and up to full-time minimum wage, which is $2,627.73 a month in 2026, the final obligation including add-ons is capped at 20 percent of adjusted gross income.
The band that will matter most in practice is the new smoothing formula at § 14-10-115(7)(a)(V). Under the old law, a parent who earned a dollar over $1,500 jumped from the reduced flat amount to a full share of the schedule. The new formula phases that jump in. For a parent above the reserve, take the amount of income above the reserve and multiply it by 80 percent for one child, 85 percent for two, 89 percent for three, 92 percent for four, 94 percent for five, or 95 percent for six or more. If that product is below the reduced flat amount, the parent pays the flat amount. If it is above the flat amount but below the parent's schedule share, the parent pays the product. If it is at or above the schedule share, the schedule controls.
A round-number example. One child. The paying parent earns $2,200 a month and the other parent $3,000. Combined income of $5,200 produces a basic obligation of $962 on the new schedule, and the paying parent's proportionate share would be about $407. Under the smoothing formula, income above the reserve is $368.17, and 80 percent of that is about $295. That is more than the $50 flat amount and less than $407, so the basic obligation is $295 before add-ons. The 20 percent cap, $440 for this parent, leaves room for a share of insurance or child care on top.
Most readers of this blog will never see those tiers on their own worksheet. They will see them on the other side of the table. Where one parent earns a professional income and the other earns near minimum wage, the reserve and the caps decide what the lower earner's share of add-ons can be, and that shapes how the higher earner's number comes out.
Changes That Took Effect When the Bill Was Signed
Not everything waited for March. Several provisions have been in force since May 31, 2025.
Extraordinary medical expenses are now shared from the first dollar. The old $250-per-child threshold is gone, the list of covered expenses is longer, and the reimbursement rules have deadlines with teeth. The health insurance post from earlier this month covers that in detail.
The court's power to allocate the income tax dependency exemption is now discretionary and factor-driven rather than tied to each parent's share of the children's costs. The court weighs each party's resources, whether a claimed exemption produces any benefit at all, and the effect on either parent's Affordable Care Act premium credit. It can condition the right to claim a child on being current with support, and it can award the lost tax benefit plus fees against a parent who claims a child in violation of the order.
In calculating business income, the court may now use straight-line depreciation even where the tax return used an accelerated method. And on the maintenance side, the exception to imputing income for a parent caring for a young child now ends when the child turns 24 months, down from 30.
What Happens to an Existing Order
Nothing, unless someone files. An order entered under the old statute keeps running on the old numbers until a court modifies it. The new schedule and the parenting-time table are not, by themselves, grounds for a change. Under C.R.S. § 14-10-122(1)(b), a modification requires a substantial and continuing change of circumstances, and applying the guidelines to produce a change of less than 10 percent is deemed not to be one.
So the question for any parent with an order older than March 2026 is arithmetic. Run the current worksheet with current incomes and the actual overnight count. If the result differs from the existing order by 10 percent or more, in either direction, a modification is available and reaches back to the date of filing. If it does not, the order stands. For some families the new curve and the higher ceiling move the number materially. For others, a parent with 100 to 150 overnights for instance, the new table lands within a few dollars of the old Worksheet B result. Guessing is a poor substitute for the calculation.
Talk to a Denver Divorce Attorney About the New Child Support Rules
Aaron Herzberg is a divorce attorney in Greenwood Village, Colorado, serving Denver and the Front Range, with more than 30 years of trial experience and a practice focused on divorce, custody, and financially complex family law. He runs the new worksheet before advising on a parenting schedule or a modification, because under the current statute the two are built together. A first meeting is a paid consultation, not a free call and not a sales pitch.
Read the full guide on DenverDivorce.com: Child Support in Colorado.
Educational information only, not legal advice. Reading this article does not create an attorney-client relationship.
