Supporting a Child

How do children benefit from the child support program?

It’s expensive to raise a child. This is true if parents live together or apart. And when parents split up a child still needs financial support.

That’s where the child support program comes in. Child support helps facilitate payments from one parent (paying parent) to either the child’s other parent or legal guardian to help with the costs of raising a child.

According to the National Center for Children in Poverty, over 11 million kids in the U.S. live in poverty. When someone is born into poverty, the chances are very high that they will stay in poverty throughout their life. But if the child has additional support from outside resources, the chances of getting out of poverty are higher. Child support is there to help the family be economically stable and the kid be economically mobile. Simply put: child support is how the cycle of poverty is broken.

In Colorado, child support services are designed to build family well-being by working with children and the adults in their lives together to access new resources, solve problems, and sharpen existing skills.

Child support is about more than collecting money. The program also supports families by providing resources and referrals to programs that can help with employment, job training, housing, and more. Child support may be able to work with parents to adjust their payments if their circumstances change. It is important for parents to remain in contact with their child support workers about their employment and financial status to avoid enforcement actions such as credit reporting and driver's license suspension.

Applying for child support in Colorado is simple. One option is to go to the Division of Child Support Services website and click Apply for Child Support. A parent can also visit a local office in their county to fill out an application in person. There is no cost to apply.

Any parent, including caretakers like grandparents, aunts, or uncles, can apply for child support regardless of how much they see or parent their child or how much money they make. In Colorado, both parents are required to financially support their child until the age of 19. It’s important to know that parents paying child support who are teens and still in school are still required to pay child support.

How is child support calculated? Several factors are considered. First is income. The parent’s income for a child support order is determined based on what they make now or their potential earning ability. Things like other child support orders that may be in place, alimony / spousal support, other children in the home, education expenses, child care expenses, health insurance, transportation, etc., are also factored into the amount of a child support order.