As a Colorado parent who pays or receives child support each month, you may, at some point, undergo life changes that warrant having the state take a second look at your existing child support order. You do not have to wait for a predetermined amount of time after the order takes effect to request a review of it as long as there has been a “substantial and material change in circumstances.”
Per the Colorado Office of Economic Security, certain situations or conditions may warrant a review of your child support order.
Circumstances that may warrant a child support order review
Either parent may request a child support order review if there has been a substantial change in income, or if the costs associated with raising the child have undergone considerable change. This may be the case if the child is now in daycare and was not when the order took effect, or if the child now has health expenses he or she did not before.
You or your child’s other parent may also want to ask for a child support order review if the child has since undergone emancipation. You may also wish to do so if the child now spends more nights with one parent than he or she did when the order took effect.
How to request a child support order review
You or the other parent must make a written request for a child support order review in the county child support office that manages your case. When submitting the request, you or the other parent must include an Income and Expense Affidavit along with other necessary documentation.
After you submit your request, you may have to go to a court hearing. The judge may make a decision without holding a hearing, depending on the circumstances.
