Child Support Glossary and Forms

Glossary / Definitions

• Arrearage: The amount of child support that is over a month past due.
• Custodial Party (CP): The person who has the children primarily in his/her care. Sometimes referred to as the Recipient Applicant, Custodial Parent, Obligee, or Payee. 
• Emancipation: The legal age when current child support usually ends.
• Family Support Registry (FSR): The institution that receives and sends out child support for Child Support Enforcement and sometimes for private parties.
• Income Assignment (IA): The document sent to the Obligor’s employer to have the employer withhold and send in child support. Also known as an Order to Withhold (OTW), or Income Withholding Order (IWO).
• Non-Custodial Party (NCP): The parent that does not have the children primarily in his/her care. Sometimes referred to as the Non-custodial Parent, Obligor, or Payor.
• Non-Disclosure of Information (NDI): A petition to the Court to keep personal contact information from being included in court actions where there is reason to believe it could endanger the applicant or the children.
• Notary: An official of the State of Colorado that witnesses your signature on documents after seeing proper identification. If you have documents for your application or review with us that require this, we can notarize them for you at no charge provided you bring them with proper identification.
• Office of Dispute Resolution (ODR) Referral: A process your Child Support Technician can begin for an Obligor and Obligee that have both requested the ODR’s help in working out parenting issues and responsibilities after separation.
• Paternity Test: A laboratory test of tissue samples that accurately determines who the biological father of a child is. Also known as a DNA test or genetic test.
• Review and Adjustment: The process that allows us to enter current financial information for the Obligor and Obligee into the Court Guidelines to recalculate the child support monthly obligation; also known as a modification.
• Termination of Parental Rights: A court process that terminates the rights of a parent to his/her child, and which in some cases may also terminate future support.
• Unfunded Disbursement (UD): A child support payment sent to the Obligee where the source of the funds did not pay the state (like a stopped or bounced check from the Obligor). In this situation, the Obligor still owes the child support, and the amount sent to the Obligee by the State is collected out of future child support checks from the Obligor.
• Unreimbursed Public Assistance (UPA): Public funds that have been issued for a child’s care, such as TANF or Colorado Works, but have not been paid back by the Obligor.

For more definitions go to the State Child Support website.