Child support in Denver: how it is calculated
Child support in Denver is set by Colorado's statewide guidelines — Denver County courts apply the same table as every other county. Here is the calculation, with the statute it comes from.
Where a Denver case goes
A Denver case is filed in the Colorado court for Denver County, which applies the state guideline below. Local practice affects timing and paperwork, not the guideline amount. Denver has about 729,019 residents (Census Bureau, 2024 estimate).
Open the full Colorado child support calculator → — same formula, with every input, the statute (C.R.S. § 14-10-115(7)(b) Schedule of Basic Child Support Obligations, as amended by HB25-1159 (eff. Mar. 1, 2026)) and the date it was last checked.
Formula
Schedule by combined adjusted gross income ($50–$40,000/mo), payer owes income share; minimum $10/mo
Type
Income-shares model
Does Denver have its own rule?
No. C.R.S. § 14-10-115(7)(b) Schedule of Basic Child Support Obligations, as amended by HB25-1159 (eff. Mar. 1, 2026) applies across Colorado, so a case from Denver is decided by the same numbers as one filed anywhere else in the state. What changes locally is the courthouse, the clerk's procedure and how long the docket takes — not the amount.
What the statute says
C.R.S. § 14-10-115(7)(b) Schedule of Basic Child Support Obligations, as amended by HB25-1159 (eff. Mar. 1, 2026) — Colorado schedule of basic child support obligations (income shares, combined adjusted gross income). Colorado uses the parents' combined monthly ADJUSTED GROSS income (gross income less pre-existing support and support for other children). The Schedule of Basic Child Support Obligations in C.R.S. § 14-10-115(7)(b), rewritten by HB25-1159 for orders entered on or after March 1, 2026, runs from $50 to $40,000 in $50 steps, and § 14-10-115(7)(a)(II) requires interpolation between rows. When the paying parent's own adjusted gross income is $650 or less the order is the $10 minimum; between $650 and the self-support reserve (29 hours a week at the state minimum wage) a reduced low-income amount of $50 to $150 applies, and just above the reserve a percentage-of-the-difference test can lower the schedule figure; these obligor-income rules are not modeled here. Above $40,000 the court has discretion but the presumptive amount may not be less than the top row, so no percentage is added. Work-related and education-related child care, health insurance and extraordinary medical expenses are added and split by income share, and since March 2026 every overnight of parenting time adjusts the obligation.
Last checked 2026-09-11; figures pending final verification against the current statute or schedule. Read the source →
Also for Denver
Other Colorado cities
Colorado Springs · Aurora · Fort Collins · Lakewood · Thornton · Arvada · Westminster · Greeley · Pueblo · Centennial · Boulder · Longmont
Everything StateTally tracks for Colorado → · Child Support in every city →