A federal judge has told Atlanta Public Schools to pay up to $152,000 to send a student long misdiagnosed as mentally disabled to a private school.

U.S. District Court Judge Marvin Shoob ordered the schools to pay for Jarron Draper, now 20, to attend a school specializing in developmental disabilities for up to four years.

Draper, who attended Benjamin E. Mays High School until two years ago, had been misdiagnosed with mental retardation by the school system in 1998, according to court documents.

Despite protests from his family, he was not retested by the schools for another five years, when they said tests confirmed the diagnosis.

An independent test later that year showed that he actually has dyslexia, a learning disability.

In his court order, handed down Tuesday, Shoob agreed with an administrative judge who had found in favor of Draper, saying it is "incredulous that anyone, let alone supposedly trained professionals, could have deemed JD mentally retarded as late as 2003."

Shoob ruled that The Cottage School, a suburban Atlanta campus devoted to serving special-needs students, can "provide him with the services he needs to go forward to become an independent, capable and successful adult."

David Monde is an Atlanta attorney who represented Draper. He said his client, who was reading at a fourth-grade level when he was 17, has been working at a grocery store but wants to return to school.

Monde said the Atlanta school system's reluctance to take him out of a restrictive class for mentally disabled students, even after the independent evaluation was completed, hurt his chances of catching up with his classmates.

"They just dragged their feet and put every obstacle they could in front of this kid and he just persevered," David Monde, an Atlanta attorney who represented Draper in the case.

"That's what makes this a great story."

Joseph Manguno, a spokesman for Atlanta Public Schools, said Thursday that lawyers for the system have received the decision and are reviewing it and considering whether to appeal.

He said no one from the system would have further comment since they consider the case ongoing.

Shoob's ruling comes as Georgia lawmakers are considering a bill that would require the state to pay for students with disabilities to attend private schools.

The plan, sponsored by Senate President pro-tem Eric Johnson, a Savannah Republican, would give the parents of roughly 186,000 Georgia students the option of pulling their children out of public schools.

The maximum amount parents would receive would be equal to the cost of educating their children in public school.

Supporters of the plan, which already has passed the state Senate, say it's to give all families the same options that wealthy families already have.

Critics call it an opening-round salvo in an attempt to offer private-school vouchers to all Georgia students.