The first day of school is coming, and you and your co-parent do not agree on where your child should walk through those doors. One of you may want to keep your child at the neighborhood school in Centennial, and the other may be pushing for a charter school across town. You can feel the calendar moving closer to August, and you are worried that this disagreement could spill over into the courtroom.
For parents who share custody, school choice is rarely just an academic debate. The school your child attends affects where your child spends most weekdays, who handles drop off and pickup, and how well your parenting schedule works in real life. If your parenting plan or allocation of parental responsibilities order is vague about education, a simple disagreement about enrollment can suddenly become a crisis just as the school year starts.
At Frost & Beck, PC, we focus our family law practice on custody and parenting plans in the Denver metro and Boulder areas, including Centennial. We regularly help parents negotiate and draft detailed education provisions, and we see how much stress can be avoided when school decisions are built into the custody agreement instead of handled at the last minute. In this guide, we will walk through how school choice fits into Colorado custody, what courts look at, and how you can plan to protect your child’s stability.
Contact our trusted child custody lawyer in Centennial at (720) 330-4623 to schedule a confidential consultation.
Why School Choice Becomes Complicated In Centennial Custody Cases
On paper, choosing a school might look straightforward. You review the options, look at programs and performance, and pick what seems best for your child. Once parents separate or divorce, especially in a place like Centennial that sits at the crossroads of several school districts, that decision can become much more complicated. Where each parent lives, who has which days, and how far a child can realistically travel on a school morning all come into play.
Centennial families often find themselves with parents living in different districts or on opposite sides of a district line. One parent may stay in the marital home that feeds into one district, while the other moves to a nearby community with a different attendance area. The school that is convenient for one parent may create a long, stressful commute for the other parent’s parenting time. This is where school choice stops being an abstract question and becomes a custody issue about how the child’s week actually works.
School choice also affects transportation, after-school care, and extracurricular activities. A school that looks great on paper may require before or after care that one parent simply cannot provide on their parenting days. If your child is doing homework in the car every exchange night because of a long drive between school and the other parent’s home, that can impact both your relationship and your child’s performance. Courts in Colorado generally look for arrangements that reduce chaos and support a stable routine, which is hard to achieve if the school does not fit the schedule.
Because of these intertwined issues, judges usually treat school disputes as part of the overall allocation of parental responsibilities. In our work with Centennial parents, we see school disagreements emerge as flashpoints even when other parts of the parenting plan function fairly well. Recognizing that school choice is a custody issue, not just an education question, is the first step toward handling it in a way that protects your child and reduces the risk of last-minute court battles.
How Colorado Decision-Making Authority Affects School Choice
Many parents focus on who has more overnights and assume that the parent with primary parenting time gets to choose the school. In Colorado, the law separates parenting time from decision-making authority. Parenting time covers where the child lives and which days and overnights each parent has. Decision-making responsibility covers who has the right to make major decisions about education, medical care, and religious upbringing.
In your allocation of parental responsibilities order, the court can assign decision-making about education to one parent alone or to both parents jointly. Joint decision-making for education means both parents must participate in and agree on major school decisions, such as switching schools or choosing a specialized program. Sole decision-making on education means one parent has the final authority, although judges still expect that parent to communicate with the other and act in the child’s best interests.
In day-to-day life, joint decision-making works well when parents can communicate and truly collaborate. They can visit schools, talk to teachers, and reach a decision together. Problems arise when parents with joint authority reach a hard impasse about school choice. In those cases, neither parent is supposed to make a unilateral change without resolving the dispute, because both share equal authority on paper.
When joint decision-making breaks down, parents generally have three main paths. They can work with a mediator to try to reach an agreement. They can ask the court to appoint a parenting coordinator or decision-maker to help resolve disputes. Or they can file a motion and ask a judge to decide. Colorado courts typically apply a best interests of the child standard to school disputes, looking at how each proposal would affect the child’s stability, education, and relationships, not just which school looks stronger on rankings.
At Frost & Beck, PC, we regularly explain these differences to parents in Centennial and nearby communities. We often review orders that say joint decision-making without any backup procedure if parents disagree, which leaves families stranded when a school conflict surfaces. Understanding that decision-making authority, not just parenting time, controls school choice is critical if you want your parenting plan to match your real priorities about your child’s education.
Key Factors Parents & Courts Weigh When Choosing A School
Once you understand who has decision-making authority, the next question is how to evaluate specific school options. Parents tend to start with academics and reputation, which matter, but Colorado judges look at a broader set of factors. Thinking through these factors, the way a court can help you make stronger proposals and avoid fights that are unlikely to succeed.
Logistics are often at the top of the list. Distance from each parent’s home, traffic patterns in the Denver metro area, and school start and end times all affect whether a school is workable. A school that looks ideal academically might require a lengthy morning drive from one parent’s home, which could make that parent consistently late or force them to give up weekday time. Judges commonly look at whether a proposed school allows both parents to exercise their parenting time without placing unrealistic transportation burdens on either of them.
Courts also consider child-specific educational needs. If your child has an Individualized Education Program, receives speech or occupational therapy, or is in a gifted program, continuity of services and staff knowledge can weigh heavily. A school that can maintain or improve the support your child already receives may be viewed more favorably than a new school that has not yet demonstrated that it can deliver comparable services for your child. In Centennial, this might mean comparing programs in different districts, rather than simply looking at overall ratings.
Stability and continuity usually matter a great deal. Judges often ask how long a child has been at the current school, whether the child is thriving there, and how disruptive a move would be. A proposal to move a child who is settled and doing well will typically face closer scrutiny than a proposal to change schools when the child is already struggling. Peer relationships, familiarity with teachers, and the child’s own preferences, especially as they get older, can all factor into this analysis.
In our work with Denver metro families, we help parents look at these issues not in isolation, but as part of a bigger picture. That might involve creating sample weekly schedules for each proposed school, mapping drive times from each parent’s home in typical traffic, and gathering information from current and prospective schools about services. Approaching school choice in this structured way can make a big difference if you later need to present your position in mediation or in court.
Drafting Custody Agreements That Prevent Future School Disputes
The best time to handle school conflicts is before they happen. A well-drafted parenting plan does more than say joint decision-making for education. It offers a roadmap for how you will handle school issues now and as your child grows. Parents who invest time in this during their initial case often avoid expensive and stressful emergency motions later.
One simple but powerful step is to identify the child’s current school in order and state that the child will remain there unless the parents agree otherwise or the court orders a change. This creates a default that supports stability. You can also include basic notice provisions, such as requiring a parent who wants to propose a new school to give written notice by a certain date before enrollment deadlines. That alone can prevent last-minute surprises in the middle of the summer.
Next, consider building in a process for breaking ties. Some parents agree that if they cannot agree after good faith discussion and mediation, one parent will have final say for education decisions. Others ask the court to appoint a parenting coordinator or decision-maker who can make a binding choice if they are at an impasse. Having any agreed-upon tie-breaking mechanism is usually better than leaving both parents stuck with an equal veto that forces every disagreement straight into court.
It also helps to think ahead to predictable transitions. Moving from elementary to middle school or from middle school to high school can reopen school choice questions, especially in areas with multiple feeder patterns or choice programs. Your agreement can set out how you will evaluate options at those points, such as visiting schools together, reviewing specific information, and making a decision by a clear date, so enrollment is not rushed.
At Frost & Beck, PC, we routinely draft forward-looking education provisions for families in Centennial and across the Denver metro area. Because our attorneys are trained mediators as well as courtroom advocates, we focus on language that not only satisfies the court but also works for parents in day-to-day life. That can include outlining communication methods, setting realistic deadlines, and building in neutral help when needed, so the parenting plan is a practical tool instead of just a document on file.
Handling Moves, New Relationships, & Other Changes That Affect Schools
Life does not stop changing after your custody case is finished. Moves, job changes, and new relationships can all affect which schools make sense for your child. A relocation that looks small on a map can cross a district line and open or close entire sets of schools, especially around Centennial, where city boundaries and school district lines do not always match.
If you are considering a move, it is wise to look at school impacts before you sign a lease or contract. Ask which schools your new address will feed into, how far those schools are from both parents, and how the move would affect your existing parenting schedule. A relocation that makes it impossible for the other parent to get the child to school on their days is likely to raise concerns in court, especially if your order requires you to consider the child’s and the other parent’s interests before moving.
Other changes, such as a new job with different hours or a new partner with children of their own, can shift the realities of who can drive, who is home after school, and how crowded mornings feel. Those changes might make your current school choice less workable over time. Instead of making unilateral adjustments, it is usually better to revisit the education and transportation pieces of your parenting plan and, if necessary, pursue a formal modification of decision-making or parenting time.
In more complex situations, such as when one parent is considering an out-of-state or international move, school issues become even more central. Courts in Colorado typically look closely at how an international relocation would affect a child’s education, language, and support system, and they tend to be cautious about approving moves that would be difficult to reverse. Our team’s international background allows us to factor in these schooling and logistical issues when advising parents about potential moves.
We have guided many parents through modifications that are triggered by changes in residence, employment, or family composition. The most successful transitions usually start with a clear-eyed look at school options and a plan for how to present any proposed changes in a child-centered, realistic way rather than treating school as an afterthought to the move.
Practical Strategies To Resolve School Disagreements Before Court
Even in high-conflict co-parenting situations, many school disputes can be resolved without a judge making the decision. The key is to approach the disagreement as a shared problem to solve for your child, instead of a win-or-lose battle between adults. A structured process often helps parents move from emotion to practical solutions.
One approach is to create a simple timeline. Months before enrollment, each parent can research options and share information about proposed schools in writing. You can exchange links to school websites, program descriptions, and basic performance data, along with a short explanation of why each school might work. Setting a date to discuss these options, either in person or in a structured virtual meeting, keeps the conversation from drifting into last-minute arguments.
Involving neutral voices can also be productive. Mediators, parenting coordinators, therapists, or school counselors may help you see options you have not considered or reframe concerns in more child-focused terms. In Colorado, a parenting coordinator or decision-maker, if appointed, can assist with ongoing disputes about school and other issues. Even without a formal appointment, a mediator with family law experience can help you brainstorm creative solutions, such as phased transitions or trial periods at a school.
If you reach an informal agreement, it is important to document it clearly and, when the decision is significant, to consider incorporating it into a modified order. Email chains alone can be hard to enforce if conflict returns. Working with an attorney to translate your agreement into clear language that a judge can approve will protect both parents and your child if circumstances change or memories differ down the road.
At Frost & Beck, PC, we often sit down with parents who are at an impasse about school and help them structure this process. Because we also litigate school-related disputes when necessary, we bring a reality check to these discussions, helping parents understand which positions are more likely to hold up in court and which might be risky, so they can make informed compromises before things escalate.
When You May Need A Judge To Decide School Choice
Sometimes, despite careful planning and sincere efforts to compromise, parents reach a point where they cannot agree on school choice. Disputes about specialized programs, private school tuition, or placement for a child with complex educational needs can become too entrenched to resolve informally. In those situations, asking a judge to decide may be the only path forward.
If you anticipate needing court involvement, preparation matters. Judges generally want to see specific, organized information, not just competing opinions. That can include school calendars, proposed daily schedules showing how each school would affect parenting time and transportation, reports or letters from educators or therapists, and documentation of how the child has been doing at the current school. Courts are more receptive to parents who have done this homework and present a clear picture of how each option would work in practice.
Timing is a common pitfall. Parents often wait until late summer to file a motion, after negotiations have stalled. By that point, court calendars may be full, and there may not be time for a full hearing before school begins. Judges can make temporary decisions in some cases, but they are cautious about being asked to resolve complex education issues under extreme time pressure, and both parents may feel they did not get to fully explain their positions.
Our attorneys have appeared in court on contested decision-making and education issues, including cases where relocation and international factors complicate school choice. This experience shapes how we help parents weigh the costs and benefits of going to court, gather the right evidence, and present their case in a way that focuses on the child’s needs and realistic logistics. That perspective can help you decide whether to keep pushing for a settlement or move forward with a motion.
Planning School Choice So Your Custody Agreement Works For Your Child
School choice in a Centennial custody case is about far more than ratings or reputations. It touches every part of your child’s daily life and your ability to follow your parenting plan without constant friction. By understanding how Colorado decision-making works, thinking like a court about logistics and stability, and building clear education provisions into your agreement, you can greatly reduce the risk of last-minute emergencies as each school year approaches.
You do not have to sort through these decisions alone. At Frost & Beck, PC, our family law team helps parents throughout the Denver metro and Boulder areas review existing orders, plan for future school transitions, and resolve active disputes about school choice. We can look at your current situation, explain your options, and help you create a path that supports your child’s education and your role as a parent.
Call (720) 330-4623 to discuss your school custody questions in Centennial and learn how we can help you move forward.