Yes. Colorado courts require divorcing parents of children under 18 to complete a court-approved parenting class under Colorado Statute § 14-10-123.7, generally within 42 days of the order. The program costs roughly $25 to $65 per parent, and you must file a certificate of completion before the court enters your divorce decree.
Key Facts: Parenting Class and Divorce in Colorado
| Requirement | Colorado Detail (2026) |
|---|---|
| Filing Fee | $230 petitioner filing fee plus a $12 e-filing surcharge; $116 respondent answer fee. As of January 2026. Verify with your local clerk. |
| Waiting Period | 91 days minimum from service of the petition, or from filing if spouses co-petition; cannot be waived |
| Residency Requirement | At least one spouse domiciled in Colorado for 91 consecutive days before filing |
| Grounds | No-fault only; the marriage must be "irretrievably broken" |
| Property Division Type | Equitable distribution (Colorado is not a community property state) |
The parenting class requirement sits inside a larger process. Colorado handles divorce as a "dissolution of marriage" governed by Title 14, Article 10 of the Colorado Revised Statutes. The parenting class divorce Colorado requirement applies specifically when the couple shares at least one minor child, and it must be satisfied on the same timeline as the rest of your case. The sections below explain who must attend, how much it costs, what the curriculum covers, and how the completion certificate is filed with the court.
Is a Parenting Class Required for Divorce in Colorado?
A parenting class is effectively required in any Colorado divorce involving a child under 18. Under Colorado Statute § 14-10-123.7, a court may order each parent who is a named party in a dissolution proceeding to attend a parent education program, and all 22 Colorado judicial districts issue that order routinely in cases with minor children. Completion is a condition of entering final custody and dissolution orders.
While the statute uses the word "may," in practice Colorado courts treat the parent education program divorce requirement as mandatory. When you file a Petition for Dissolution of Marriage that discloses a shared minor child, the court issues a Notice and Order requiring both parents to complete an approved program. Judges rely on this class to reduce parental conflict, because Colorado research and national studies link high-conflict co-parenting to worse child outcomes. Roughly 22 judicial districts administer their own approved-provider lists, so the specific program you take depends on the county where you file. The co-parenting class required in Denver County may differ in provider from the one required in El Paso or Boulder County, but the underlying legal obligation is the same statewide.
What Colorado Law Says: C.R.S. § 14-10-123.7
Colorado's parenting class rule comes from a single statute, Colorado Statute § 14-10-123.7, titled "Parental education — legislative declaration." It authorizes a court to order a parent whose child is under 18 to attend a program that educates parents about the impact of separation and divorce on children, and it directs those programs to teach cooperative co-parenting skills. The statute applies across dissolution, legal separation, and parental responsibility cases.
The legislative declaration inside the statute is unusually direct about purpose. Colorado lawmakers found that separation and divorce affect children profoundly and that structured education helps parents shield children from conflict. The statute reaches five categories of proceeding: a dissolution of marriage, a legal separation, an allocation of parental responsibilities (the Colorado term for custody), a parenting time proceeding, and post-decree proceedings that modify parental responsibilities or parenting time. That breadth means the family stabilization course obligation can arise years after your original divorce if you later return to court to modify a parenting plan. The program content is also defined by statute: it must cover the divorce process, the emotional impact on adults and children, and concrete co-parenting strategies. Colorado courts allocate the cost between the parents and can consider each parent's ability to pay when doing so.
Who Must Take a Parenting Class in Colorado
Both parents in a Colorado divorce involving a child under 18 must complete the class; the requirement applies to petitioners and respondents equally. Under Colorado Statute § 14-10-123.7, any parent who is a named party in a qualifying proceeding can be ordered to attend, which in a two-parent household means each adult completes a separate program and files a separate certificate.
The obligation follows the child, not the marital status of the adults. If you were never married but share a child and are litigating an allocation of parental responsibilities, the same divorce class for parents applies to your case. Grandparents, stepparents, and other non-parent parties are generally not ordered to attend unless the court specifically directs it. Parents with children who are already 18 or emancipated are typically exempt, because the statute is limited to minors. In rare situations a court may waive or modify the requirement, for example where a documented safety concern such as domestic violence makes joint participation inappropriate; even then, judges often order separate classes rather than eliminating the requirement. If you are unsure whether the class applies to your situation, a personalized divorce roadmap can help you map the specific steps your Colorado case requires before you file.
When You Must Complete the Colorado Parenting Class
Colorado parents must generally complete the parenting class within 42 days of receiving the court's Notice and Order requiring parent education. That deadline runs from the date the order is issued, not from the date your divorce is filed, and the certificate of completion must reach the court before the judge enters final orders on custody or dissolution.
The 42-day window matters because it usually falls well inside the mandatory 91-day waiting period that every Colorado divorce must observe under Colorado Statute § 14-10-106. Since the court cannot finalize your dissolution for at least 91 days from service or co-petition filing, most parents have ample time to finish a class that takes only four to six hours. Delay is still the most common way parents stall their own cases. If you miss the 42-day deadline, a judge can decline to enter final orders, continue your hearing, or in some districts impose additional requirements. Because online programs can often be completed in a single sitting, many Colorado parents finish the class in the first week or two after filing to remove it from their to-do list. Building this early deadline into your overall timeline keeps the parenting class from becoming the item that delays an otherwise-ready divorce.
How Much Colorado Parenting Classes Cost in 2026
Colorado court-approved parenting classes typically cost between $25 and $65 per parent in 2026, with most online programs priced around $30 to $50. Some providers structure the fee by enrollment window, for example roughly $30 for a 30-day access period and $45 for a 45-day period, while nonprofit and in-person options such as CASA-affiliated classes can run about $65 per person.
Cost is set by the individual approved provider, not by the court, so pricing varies. Online providers dominate the market because they let parents complete the family stabilization course on their own schedule from any device, and they issue the certificate of completion immediately or shortly after you finish. In-person and Zoom-based classes still exist in some judicial districts and may cost more due to instructor time. Fee waivers are possible: because Colorado Statute § 14-10-123.7 directs courts to consider each parent's ability to pay, a parent who qualifies for a filing-fee waiver can often request reduced-cost or free parent education. Compared with the $230 petitioner filing fee and a $12 e-filing surcharge, the class is one of the smaller line items in a Colorado divorce budget, but it is a required one.
| Provider Type | Typical 2026 Cost | Format | Certificate Delivery |
|---|---|---|---|
| Online self-paced | $25 to $50 per parent | Any device, on demand | Immediate or same-day |
| Enrollment-window online | $30 (30 days) / $45 (45 days) | Online, time-limited access | On completion |
| Nonprofit / in-person | About $65 per person | Classroom or Zoom | After session |
Cost figures are approximate and set by each provider. As of January 2026. Verify current pricing directly with your approved provider and your local clerk.
What the Parent Education Curriculum Covers
Colorado's parent education program teaches parents how separation and divorce affect children and how to co-parent cooperatively, as required by Colorado Statute § 14-10-123.7. A standard course runs about four to six hours and covers child development stages, the emotional impact of divorce, effective communication between households, and strategies for keeping children out of adult conflict.
The curriculum is practical rather than legal. Typical modules address how children of different ages perceive divorce, how to deliver the news to a child, how to build a workable parenting plan, and how to handle transitions between two homes. Most programs devote significant time to conflict reduction, including techniques for exchanging children without arguments and for communicating about schedules, school, and medical needs. Because these skills feed directly into your Colorado parenting plan, the class complements the legal standard courts apply when allocating parental responsibilities under Colorado Statute § 14-10-124, which asks judges to decide based on the best interests of the child. Understanding how the co-parenting class required by the court connects to the best-interests standard helps parents approach the class as preparation, not just a box to check. To go deeper on how Colorado allocates decision-making and parenting time, review our overview of child custody arrangements.
How to Find an Approved Provider in Your Judicial District
Colorado maintains 22 judicial districts, and each district publishes or accepts its own list of approved parenting-class providers. The safest way to choose a program is to confirm it appears on your district's approved list or is accepted statewide, because a certificate from an unapproved provider may be rejected by the court and force you to retake the class.
Most statewide online programs are marketed as court-approved throughout Colorado, but acceptance is ultimately a district-by-district and even judge-by-judge decision. When you receive your Notice and Order requiring parent education, that document, or the accompanying paperwork from the clerk, usually identifies where to find approved providers. The Colorado Judicial Branch website posts parenting-class information on individual county court pages, so checking the page for the specific county where you filed, such as Adams, Denver, El Paso, Arapahoe, or Jefferson County, is the most reliable step. If you are working with counsel, your attorney will typically confirm the provider before you enroll. Because provider approval is the single most common reason a certificate gets rejected, this five-minute verification protects your 42-day deadline. If you have not yet retained help and want to compare options, you can find a divorce attorney serving your Colorado county.
How to File Your Certificate of Completion
After you finish the class, the provider issues a certificate of completion, and you must file that certificate with the court before final orders are entered. Filing puts proof of compliance with Colorado Statute § 14-10-123.7 into your case record, and courts will not finalize custody or dissolution orders until both parents' certificates are on file.
The mechanics are straightforward. Many online providers submit the certificate to the court electronically or email it to you as a PDF that you upload through Colorado Courts E-Filing, the state's online filing system. If you filed on paper or represent yourself, you may hand-deliver or mail the certificate to the clerk of the court handling your case. Keep a personal copy, because clerks occasionally cannot locate a filed certificate at a hearing and you may need to present it. Since both parents must comply, one parent's timely filing does not cover the other, and a missing certificate from either party can delay the entire case. Filing your certificate promptly, ideally well before your final orders hearing, prevents a last-minute continuance that could push your divorce weeks past the 91-day minimum waiting period. Track this task alongside your financial disclosures and parenting plan so nothing slips.
What Happens If You Skip the Colorado Parenting Class
Skipping the required parenting class can stall or block your Colorado divorce. Because completion is a condition of entering final orders under Colorado Statute § 14-10-123.7, a judge can decline to finalize your dissolution, continue your final orders hearing, or order you to complete the class before the case proceeds, adding weeks or months to a divorce that would otherwise close near the 91-day minimum.
Colorado judges have broad discretion over how to handle noncompliance. In most cases the consequence is delay rather than a penalty, but repeated failure to comply after being ordered can expose a parent to a contempt of court finding, which carries the possibility of fines or other sanctions. Practically, a parent who refuses the class hands leverage to the other side and signals to the court a reluctance to prioritize the child's adjustment, which is not the impression you want when the judge is weighing parental responsibilities under Colorado Statute § 14-10-124. The class is inexpensive, quick, and completable online, so the cost of skipping it, measured in delayed finalization and judicial goodwill, far outweighs the four to six hours the divorce class for parents actually takes. If a genuine barrier exists, such as cost or a safety concern, the correct move is to raise it with the court and request a waiver or accommodation rather than simply ignoring the order.
How the Parenting Class Fits the Broader Colorado Divorce Process
The parenting class is one requirement among several that must align before a Colorado divorce is final. The core sequence is: establish 91 days of residency, file the petition and pay the $230 fee, serve your spouse, complete financial disclosures and the parent education program, and wait out the mandatory 91-day period under Colorado Statute § 14-10-106 before the court enters a decree.
Colorado is a no-fault, equitable distribution state, which shapes everything around the parenting class. Grounds are limited to the marriage being irretrievably broken, so no spouse must prove wrongdoing. Marital property is divided fairly, though not necessarily 50/50, under Colorado Statute § 14-10-113, a framework rooted in the principle of equitable distribution. Child support is calculated under the statewide guideline in Colorado Statute § 14-10-115, which uses both parents' incomes and parenting time; you can estimate a figure with our child support calculator. The parenting class runs concurrently with these steps, meaning you can complete it during the same 91-day window in which you finish disclosures, negotiate a parenting plan, and resolve property questions. Sequencing the class early keeps it from becoming the bottleneck, so that when the 91st day arrives, your certificate is already on file and the court can finalize without a continuance.