When one parent moves out of state, the relocation fight gets all the attention. But whether a judge allows the move or the parents agree to it, the harder job comes next: writing a plan that keeps a child connected to a parent who now lives 900 miles away. Colorado's statute offers no template. It says the plan must address parenting time, exchanges, and parent-child communication, and that it must be "as specific as possible." A long-distance plan that says "reasonable parenting time by agreement" will be back in court within a year.
This article is for the parent who is moving and the parent who is staying: what a workable plan contains, how travel costs and child support interact, which state keeps the case, and the drafting mistakes that produce the second lawsuit.
The Legal Frame, Briefly: Initial Case Versus Post-Decree Move
Colorado treats a move differently depending on when it happens. In the initial case, the Colorado Supreme Court held in Spahmer v. Gullette (2005) that the court must accept where each parent intends to live and allocate parenting time from there under the best-interests factors in C.R.S. § 14-10-124(1.5). A judge has no authority to order a parent to live in a particular place (In re Marriage of Morgan, Colo. App. 2018).
After the decree, a majority-time parent who wants to relocate in a way that "substantially changes the geographical ties" between the child and the other parent must give written notice as soon as practicable: the new location, the reason, and a proposed revised parenting plan. The court then weighs the nine factors in C.R.S. § 14-10-129(2)(c): the reasons for the move and for the objection, the history and quality of each parent's relationship with the child, schools in both places, extended family, the advantages of staying with the primary caregiver, the anticipated impact of the move, and whether a reasonable schedule is feasible. Under the companion case In re Marriage of Ciesluk (2005), neither parent gets a presumption. This blog covers relocation law in a separate post; the rest of this article assumes the move is happening.
The School-Year Home and the Break Calendar
Nearly every long-distance plan has the same skeleton: one home is the school-year home, and the distant parent receives the bulk of summer, most of the longer breaks, and whatever long weekends the travel time allows. The details are where plans succeed or fail.
- Tie every block to the school calendar and name the district whose calendar controls. "Summer parenting time begins two days after the last day of school and ends ten days before the first day of school" survives a change of schools; "June 5 through August 5" does not.
- Give summer to the distant parent in one or two long blocks rather than scattered weeks. Six of ten summer weeks is common for school-age children; younger children do better with two shorter blocks.
- State holidays with clock times and a priority rule: "Winter break, first half, from school release until December 27 at 6:00 p.m., to the mother in even years and the father in odd years." Say explicitly that holiday time overrides the regular schedule. Alternate Thanksgiving and spring break by year.
- Include a right to visit in the child's city. On ten days' notice, the distant parent may spend a weekend or a few school-week evenings where the child lives, attend games and conferences, and take the child overnight without displacing school. This clause does more for the relationship than any summer week.
Build in review points. A plan written for a six-year-old should say what changes at middle school, when the child may travel unaccompanied, and when the child's own activities get a vote.
Travel Logistics, Cost, and the Child Support Interaction
Travel is where most long-distance conflict lives, so the plan should answer every logistical question in advance. Who books the tickets and by what deadline (thirty days out is typical). Whether flights must be nonstop and daytime. Which parent accompanies a young child, and at what age the child may fly under an airline's unaccompanied-minor program. For drives, the exact exchange point and time, whether a halfway town on I-70 or the receiving parent's driveway. Who holds the passport.
Cost has a statutory default. Under C.R.S. § 14-10-115(11)(a)(II), the expenses of transporting the child between the parents' homes, and of an accompanying parent if the child is under twelve, are divided in proportion to the parents' adjusted gross incomes, by agreement or court order. Parents often vary this: the moving parent pays all travel for two years, or the split is 60/40 regardless of income. Do the math first. Eight round trips a year at $450 is $3,600, and an accompanying parent for a seven-year-old doubles it.
Distance also changes the basic support number. For orders entered or modified on or after March 1, 2026, Colorado replaced the old all-or-nothing overnight threshold with a parenting-time table that credits every overnight, so a distant parent with 70 overnights a year, who once received no adjustment, now receives a partial one (this blog's parenting-time table post covers the mechanics). The court may also deviate from the guideline where applying it would be inequitable. An existing order does not change on its own; a motion to modify is required.
Virtual Contact That Actually Happens
C.R.S. § 14-10-124(7)(e) requires the plan to state how a parent and child will communicate outside that parent's time, including method and frequency. For a long-distance parent this is not filler. Specify days and times, the platform, who initiates, and a make-up rule for missed calls. Say that the hosting parent will make the child available in a private space with a working device, unmonitored. Keep expectations age-appropriate: ten minutes for a kindergartner, an open text line for a teenager.
Add an information clause: both parents get school-portal access, teacher and coach emails, and medical records directly from the providers, not through each other.
Which State Keeps the Case
Under the Uniform Child-Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act, C.R.S. § 14-13-202, the Colorado court that entered the original orders keeps exclusive, continuing jurisdiction until a court determines that the child and both parents no longer have a significant connection with Colorado and the evidence about the child is no longer here, or until nobody involved lives here. As long as one parent remains, Colorado ordinarily keeps the case. The Colorado court can also decline jurisdiction as an inconvenient forum under C.R.S. § 14-13-207, weighing the child's time out of state, distance, the parties' finances, any agreement about forum, where the evidence and witnesses are, and any domestic violence history.
The lesson of In re Marriage of Pritchett (Colo. App. 2003) is that once a Colorado court relinquishes jurisdiction, orders it enters afterward are void. A plan should say which court the parents expect to keep the case; that does not bind the court, but it is a statutory factor.
The Mistakes That Bring Long-Distance Plans Back to Court
- "Reasonable and liberal" time instead of dated blocks. Colorado's enforcement statute, C.R.S. § 14-10-129.5, works only against a specific schedule.
- No booking deadline, no cost rule, and no make-up rule for missed calls or cancelled flights.
- Silence on the next move. The statutory notice in § 14-10-129 applies regardless, but a plan should add its own notice period and say that a second relocation, or a move back, reopens the schedule.
- No age-based review. The plan for a first-grader is wrong for a ninth-grader with a job and a team.
When the schedule is specific and one parent still ignores it, § 14-10-129.5 gives the court thirty-five days to act on a verified motion, make-up time of the same type within six months to a year, and a mandatory award of the aggrieved parent's fees.
Talk to a Denver Divorce Attorney About a Long-Distance Parenting Plan
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. A long-distance plan is only as good as the details drafted before anyone boards a plane, and fixing a vague one later costs more than writing a precise one now. A first meeting is a paid consultation, not a free call and not a sales pitch.
Read the full guides on DenverDivorce.com: Parenting Time in Colorado and Colorado Parenting-Time Schedules.
Educational information only, not legal advice. Reading this article does not create an attorney-client relationship.
