A story published today by the Telegraph reports that Georgia’s divorcing parents may grumble when they ante up $30 to take a court-mandated course on how the end of a marriage affects the children.

But Laura Bowen, who oversees the local Families in Transition program, said most leave with the recognition that the focus should be on the kids.

Since 1994, parents in the Third Judicial District, which includes the Macon and Houston circuits, have been required to take the class to get divorced.

"Pretty much (the program) is statewide," said David Ratley, who was the court administrator for the Third District when the program was introduced.

At the time, a similar program was offered in several metro Atlanta counties. Parents who lived in the Macon area but were getting divorced there often would call and ask if there was a local program, he said.

"We took a look at it and everything we saw showed us it was something really positive," said Ratley, who now serves as director of the state Administrative Office of the Courts.

Ratley said he presented the program to the local judges, who overwhelmingly embraced it. In the Third District, the course is taught by public and private nonprofit family and youth counseling organizations that are chosen and licensed by the court.

The three-hour class includes a booklet with divorce statistics and resources for outside support and counseling beyond the seminar.

"A three-hour seminar is just a three-hour seminar," Ratley said. "It just kind of gets folks thinking and started in the right direction."

About 80 percent of those who attend the Families in Transition class are divorcing parents. The rest are usually people involved in legitimizations, changes in custody or visitation and grandparents.

The course covers topics such as the stages of grief that parents and children may experience as they cope with the divorce, how children react to the divorce depending on their age and how and when children should be introduced to a parent's new relationship.

The course also tries to get parents to think about what the other parent might be going through, Bowen said.

The course also stresses the things parents should keep from children, such as discussion of finances and child support. Bowen said she's worked with a number of children of divorce who are used inappropriately as messengers between their parents.

"I want them to see divorce through their child's eyes," Bowen said. "I think as someone who was married before and divorced, I didn't see that."