Paternity and Parentage in Colorado

What Legal Parentage Means, and Why It Matters

Colorado law draws a line between a biological parent and a legal parent. A DNA link by itself does not give a parent the right to see their child, and it does not let the other parent collect child support. Those rights and duties begin only when parentage is established under Colorado's Uniform Parentage Act, found at C.R.S. 19-4-101 and the sections that follow.

Once parentage is legally established, everything else can follow:

• Parenting time and decision-making. Colorado calls this an allocation of parental responsibilities. It is what most people mean by custody.
• Child support. Support is calculated under statewide guidelines, and it can only be ordered against, or collected for, a legal parent.
• Benefits and inheritance. Through a legal parent, a child gains inheritance rights and possible access to health insurance, Social Security benefits, and veterans benefits.
• Identity and health. The parent can be named on the birth certificate, and the child gains a documented family medical history.

Courts increasingly say parentage rather than paternity, and the statute's framework can reach parents regardless of gender. That includes same-sex couples: a parent of any gender can ask the court to decide parentage, or respond when someone else does. The statute itself is written in older, gendered terms, so this page uses the statute's words where precision requires them and plain, non-gendered language everywhere else.

How Colorado Presumes Someone Is a Parent

A presumption is a legal head start. When one applies, the law treats a person as the child's parent unless a court decides otherwise. Under C.R.S. 19-4-105, a person is presumed to be a child's parent in several situations, including:

• They were married to the person who gave birth, and the child was born during the marriage or within 300 days after the marriage ended.
• They attempted to marry the person who gave birth and the marriage later turned out to be invalid, with similar timing rules.
• After the child was born, they married or attempted to marry the person who gave birth, and they acknowledged the child as their own, for example by consenting to be named on the birth certificate or by a written promise to support the child.
• They received the child into their home and openly held the child out as their own while the child was a minor.
• They acknowledged their parentage in a signed writing filed with the court or the state registrar of vital statistics.
• Genetic testing shows at least a 97 percent probability that they are the child's biological parent.

Sometimes two people hold presumptions at the same time, such as a spouse and a biological parent. No test result automatically wins. The court resolves the conflict by weighing policy and logic, including how long each person has actually parented the child and what disruption of that relationship would mean for the child.

Three Paths to Establishing Parentage

1. Sign a voluntary acknowledgment

Unmarried parents who agree can sign an acknowledgment of paternity (the form's official name) at the hospital after the birth, or later through the state's vital records office. Once filed with the state registrar, it establishes legal parentage and places the second parent's name on the birth certificate. It is a serious legal document, not a formality. Either signer may rescind it within 60 days of signing, or before the first court or administrative case involving the child if that comes sooner. After that window closes, it can be challenged only for fraud, duress, or a mistake of material fact, and the person challenging it carries the burden of proof.

2. File a parentage case in court

When parents do not agree, or when certainty is needed, either one can file a parentage action. The court can order genetic testing, enter a judgment naming the child's legal parent, and then address parenting time and child support.

3. Let the state open a case

County child support services can also start a parentage and support case, often when a parent applies for services or receives public assistance. There is an important limit here. The state's case establishes parentage and support. It does not give a parent a parenting schedule. That takes separate court orders, and we help parents put those orders in place.

Genetic Testing

Genetic testing in a Colorado parentage case is usually a painless cheek swab collected from the child and the adults involved. The rules live in C.R.S. 13-25-126, and as of this writing they work like this:

• The court can order testing when parentage is disputed in a case.
• Results from a qualifying laboratory come into evidence without extra formalities.
• A probability of parentage of at least 97 percent creates a presumption that the person is the child's parent.
• That presumption can be rebutted only by other qualifying genetic testing that excludes the person or identifies someone else as the biological parent.

Testing answers the biological question. It does not always answer the legal one. When someone else is a presumed parent through marriage, or has raised the child as their own, the court still weighs the competing presumptions with the child's wellbeing in view.

Who Can File, and When

Colorado keeps the courthouse door open to nearly everyone with a real stake in the answer. Under C.R.S. 19-4-107, a parentage action can be brought by the person who gave birth, by a person who believes they are, or who is presumed to be, the child's parent, by the child, and by the state, including county human services and the child support services unit.

Deadlines matter, and as of this writing they include:

• A parent may file at any time before the child's eighteenth birthday.
• A child whose parentage has not been determined may file until age twenty-one under C.R.S. 19-4-108.
• An action to declare that a presumed parent is not the child's legal parent, when the presumption comes from marriage or attempted marriage, must be filed within a reasonable time after learning the relevant facts, and never more than five years after the child's birth.

Five years passes quickly, and a reasonable time can be far shorter. If a presumption touches your family, the safest move is to ask your questions early.