What is allocation of parental responsibility or custody?
Although the public tends to use the common term of “custody,” Colorado law no longer uses that label. Instead, Colorado uses the longer phrase, “allocation of parental responsibility and decision making.” This is the legal authority to make decisions about a minor child. The court specifically allocates decision making about three topics, or occasionally more. The three required elements of allocation of parental responsibility (“APR”) are: education, religious upbringing, and non-emergency medical care. (Of course, emergency medical care is handled by whatever responsible adult is caring for the child at the time of an emergency.) Usually this authority is allocated to both or one of the child’s parents, but sometimes it is allocated to another person who is filling a custodial or parental role for the child, such as a grandparent, aunt or uncle, step-parent, or another involved and appropriate person.
