Lost Parenting Time Over a False Accusation? Why Colorado Just Scrapped a Proposed Fix

The Bottom Line

If a parent loses custody time due to an abuse investigation that turns out to be unfounded, this legislation would force family courts to grant them 'make-up' time. It is designed to make families whole after false or unproven allegations disrupt court-ordered schedules, ensuring lost weekends and holidays are actually returned.

What This Bill Actually Does

In high-conflict divorces or custody battles, it is unfortunately common for one parent to accuse the other of abuse or neglect. When that happens, law enforcement, a child welfare agency, or a county Department of Human or Social Services usually steps in to investigate. As a safety precaution, the accused parent's court-ordered time with their kids is immediately paused or severely restricted. But if that investigation ultimately finds no evidence of abuse or neglect, the cleared parent is often left empty-handed. Those missed weekends, holidays, or summer vacations are simply gone, and getting them back under current law is an uphill, expensive legal battle.

This legislation tackles that problem by creating a specific statutory mechanism for 'make-up' parenting time under a new section of law (C.R.S. 14-10-129.7). The rule is straightforward: if an investigation by police or child welfare does not result in a finding of abuse or neglect, the family court must order additional parenting time to compensate the cleared parent. The burden of proof shifts dramatically here. Instead of the cleared parent having to beg the court for extra time, the court is required to grant it unless the other parent can show 'good cause' why the make-up time should not happen.

The legislation puts strict, practical guardrails on how this replacement time works. First, the make-up time must be the exact same type and duration as what was wrongfully denied. If you missed Thanksgiving and two standard weekends, you are entitled to a major holiday and two standard weekends—not just a random Wednesday night. The cleared parent gets the authority to select the new dates within the boundaries of the existing custody order, but they must use this extra time within two years of the court's ruling. Finally, the bill explicitly states that it does not give anyone the right to sue the investigating agencies for the disruption.

What It Means for You

For any Colorado parent navigating a shared custody arrangement, this policy addresses one of the most frustrating loopholes in family law. Right now, if an ex-spouse, a teacher, or a third party triggers a child welfare investigation that turns up nothing, the disruption to your relationship with your kids is often irreversible. The time is just gone. This framework acts as an insurance policy for your court-ordered parenting time, ensuring that an unfounded allegation does not permanently rob you of your legal right to be with your children. It guarantees that the system has a built-in mechanism to make your family whole again.

If you ever find yourself in this situation, knowing how to leverage that two-year window is critical. Because the law grants the wrongfully denied parent the power to select the make-up dates, you gain significant flexibility in planning future vacations, holidays, or special events. However, you will need to be incredibly organized. You must meticulously document exactly what type of time was lost during the investigation—was it a standard weekday overnight, a high-value holiday, or a multi-week summer block?—because the court can only grant matching, apples-to-apples replacement time. Keeping a detailed calendar and communicating clearly with your attorney will be the difference between getting your time back and losing it to administrative confusion.

It is equally important to understand the limits of this protection. The legislation makes it explicitly clear that being granted this make-up time does not constitute a 'material change in circumstances.' In Colorado family law, you generally need to prove a material change to permanently modify who gets primary custody. This means you cannot use an unfounded investigation as a legal weapon to flip the entire custody agreement in your favor; you only get your missed time back. Additionally, this is not retroactive. It applies only to parenting time disputes or motions filed on or after the law's effective date, meaning you cannot go back into old court files to claim time you lost five years ago.

What It Means for Your Business

For family law attorneys, mediators, and legal professionals across Colorado, this policy introduces a mandatory procedural step in high-conflict custody cases. Because the legislation dictates that the court shall order this compensatory time (barring good cause), legal practices need to fundamentally update their post-investigation workflows. Attorneys will need to immediately file motions for make-up time the moment an investigation is closed without findings, rather than treating it as an optional negotiation point. It also adds a complex new layer to settlement discussions and mediation, as one party will now hold a legally guaranteed bank of 'owed' time that must be scheduled within a strict two-year window. Your intake forms and client advisory packets should be updated to track interrupted time meticulously.

While this is primarily a family court issue, Colorado employers and HR departments should be prepared for the downstream effects on employee scheduling and leave requests. When an employee is suddenly granted weeks or holidays of make-up parenting time by a judge, they have the legal authority to select those dates. Employers might see unpredictable PTO requests or sudden shifts in employee availability as parents rush to use their court-mandated make-up time before it expires. Having flexible, clearly communicated policies around family-related scheduling adjustments—and training front-line managers to handle these requests with discretion—will help your operations run smoothly when an employee is dealing with family court mandates.

Finally, if your business interacts with the state's child welfare system—such as contracted social workers, supervised visitation centers, or family therapists—this policy offers a critical liability shield. The legislation explicitly states that the creation of this make-up time does not create a cause of action against a child welfare agency, the Department of Human Services, or law enforcement. This ensures your agency cannot be sued for 'lost time damages' simply because you conducted a legally mandated investigation that ultimately found no evidence of abuse. Your standard operating procedures for investigations remain unchanged, but you may see an uptick in requests for your investigation closure documents as parents use them to file for their make-up time.

Follow the Money

This is one of those rare pieces of legislation that costs the state absolutely nothing to implement. According to the nonpartisan fiscal note, the framework requires $0 in new state revenue and $0 in state expenditures. It does not require hiring new judges, creating new departments, or expanding government programs.

While trial courts and the Office of the Child's Representative (OCR) will need to update their internal training materials and standard legal motions to account for these new make-up time requests, the added workload is minimal enough to be absorbed by existing staff. The lack of a price tag makes sense when you look at the mechanics: these families are already actively navigating the court system, and judges are already holding hearings on these specific custody disputes. Adding a standardized calculation for make-up time to an existing hearing simply shifts how the law is applied without requiring new taxpayer-funded resources.

Where This Bill Stands

SB26-073 is currently In Committee. The latest official action came on 02/11/2026: Senate Committee on Judiciary Postpone Indefinitely.

That means the bill is still in the committee stage, and it is currently sitting in the Judiciary. To keep moving, it would need to clear committee and then survive floor votes in both chambers.