50/50 Custody by Default? Why Colorado's Equal Parenting Time Bill Just Stalled Out

What This Bill Actually Does

Right now, Colorado family courts do not rely on a mathematical default when dividing custody. Instead, judges look at a broad legal standard called the best interests of the child. While that sounds great on paper, in practice, it means the allocation of parenting time is determined on a highly subjective, case-by-case basis. Senate Bill 26-027, officially named the PEACE Act (Parental Equality and Child Empowerment Act), was designed to dramatically shift that starting line.

Instead of starting from zero and letting lawyers argue it out, the bill proposed a rebuttable presumption of equal parenting time. Legally, that means courts would automatically assume a 50/50 split is the best outcome for the child. The bill defined 'equal' as at least 45% of overnight visits for each parent—which works out to about 164 nights a year—subject to reasonable adjustments for school schedules or holidays. However, there was a catch: this automatic presumption would only apply if both parents lived within a 25-mile radius of the child's school, daycare, or another reasonable geographic anchor.

To get anything other than a roughly equal split, one parent would have to prove with clear and convincing evidence that 50/50 was a bad idea. The bill laid out exactly what could break that presumption. A judge could strip away equal time if a parent was unfit due to a substantiated history of domestic violence, child abuse, severe substance misuse, or a severe behavioral disorder. Additionally, a parent could lose equal time if they demonstrated a 'substantiated pattern' of refusing to share responsibilities or actively trying to damage the child's relationship with the other parent. If a judge did decide to deny equal time, the bill required them to put their specific, factual reasons on the public record.

What It Means for You

If you are currently co-parenting, navigating a divorce, or even just thinking about separating, this bill is a massive indicator of where family law conversations are heading in our state. Right now, without a 50/50 default rule, custody outcomes can feel highly dependent on which judge happens to catch your case and how aggressive your legal representation is. A guaranteed starting point of 45-50% overnights would have taken a massive amount of the initial guesswork—and the initial legal fees—out of the equation.

But it is also deeply tied to your wallet. In Colorado, child support calculations are heavily driven by the number of overnights a child spends with each parent. Generally speaking, the more overnights you have, the less child support you pay to the other household, because the state assumes you are directly covering the child's day-to-day costs (like food, electricity, and entertainment) during that time. A default 50/50 split would have fundamentally changed the financial realities for newly divorced parents across the state, potentially lowering support payments for the higher-earning spouse while requiring both homes to bear equal, daily financial burdens. It also means both parents would need to arrange their work schedules to accommodate school drop-offs and after-school care for half the week.

Because this bill just died in committee, current law remains exactly the same. Judges still have broad discretion based on the child's best interests, and you still have to advocate for every overnight you get. But here is what you should do to protect yourself and your family right now:

• Audit your current parenting plan: If your arrangement is not working for your family, you still have the right to request a modification under current laws if circumstances have changed. Do not wait for a new law to fix a bad schedule.
• Document everything: The PEACE act relied heavily on 'substantiated' patterns of behavior to deny custody. Even without this law, family courts rely on hard evidence. Keep a clean, written record of co-parenting communications, missed visits, and shared expenses.
• Watch for the next attempt: Bills like this rarely die just once. Proponents of default 50/50 custody bring variations of this legislation to the Capitol almost every year. Find out where your state senator stands on default shared parenting.

What It Means for Your Business

You might assume a family court bill has absolutely nothing to do with your business operations, but if you operate in family law, real estate, child care, or human resources, this is exactly the kind of underlying societal shift that dictates your market. For family law attorneys and mediators, a default 50/50 presumption would have entirely restructured your negotiation strategies. Less time would be spent fighting over the baseline split of days, and significantly more billable hours would be spent arguing over the specific clear and convincing evidence needed to rebut it, like tracking down substantiated medical or police records.

For real estate professionals and property managers, you need to pay close attention to the 25-mile radius provision that was proposed. To secure equal parenting time under this bill, parents would have been highly motivated to buy or rent within 25 miles of their child's school. That creates intense, hyper-local housing demand as separating couples race to establish two permanent, kid-friendly residences in the exact same school district or zip code. And for HR directors, default 50/50 custody means you are going to see more employees needing flexible schedules. When both parents are legally required to manage school drop-offs and sick days for half the week, the standard 9-to-5 desk requirement becomes a major friction point.

Even though this specific bill was postponed indefinitely, the business signals remain strong. Divorcing parents in Colorado are increasingly demanding true 50/50 arrangements, which means they need local, flexible solutions from the businesses they interact with.

• For Family Law Firms: Update your standard client advisories this week. Remind incoming clients that Colorado still does not have a statutory 50/50 default, so strong, proactive evidence for the subjective 'best interests' standard is still required.
• For Real Estate Agents: If you market to divorcing couples or work in family-heavy suburbs, emphasize your ability to quickly locate dual, comparable properties within tight geographic radii (like a 25-mile school zone).
• For HR Leaders: Review your flexible scheduling and remote work policies. Ensure your managers are trained on how to equitably handle employees navigating complex, rotating 50/50 custody schedules.

Follow the Money

If there is a silver lining to how the state runs its family courts, it is that changing the default legal rules doesn't inherently cost the taxpayers a dime. The official nonpartisan Fiscal Note for SB26-027 projected exactly $0 in new state expenditures, $0 in new state revenue, and required no new appropriations from the general fund.

The Judicial Department might have seen a slight bump in administrative workload because judges would have been required to write out much more detailed, specific findings of fact every time they denied a 50/50 split. But, as the state fiscal analysts pointed out, judges already follow standard, rigorous procedures when ordering unequal parenting time and typically prepare detailed findings in those highly contested cases anyway. Because the length of court hearings wasn't expected to increase significantly, this was viewed as a completely revenue-neutral policy change. Taxpayers wouldn't have felt this one, even though families absolutely would have.

Where This Bill Stands

This bill hit a brick wall very early in the legislative session. Senate Bill 26-027 was introduced by Senator Lynda Zamora Wilson on January 14, 2026, and was immediately assigned to the Senate Committee on State, Veterans, & Military Affairs. Just a few weeks later, on February 3, 2026, the committee voted to Postpone Indefinitely (commonly referred to as 'PI').

In Colorado legislative speak, 'Postpone Indefinitely' is the polite, procedural way to say a bill has been killed for the year. It will not advance to the full Senate floor for a debate, it will not cross over to the House, and it will not become law in 2026. The State Affairs committee is frequently used as a 'kill committee' where leadership sends bills they know are too controversial, practically unworkable, or politically fraught to survive a full floor vote. While the PEACE Act is officially off the table for this current session, the fight over parental equality is one of the most recurring, passionate debates at the Capitol. Expect a newly drafted, slightly retooled version of this concept to surface again next January.