§ 3601. When apportioned and how applied. The amount annually
appropriated by the legislature for general support for public schools,
net of disallowances, refunds, reimbursements and credits, shall be
apportioned by the commissioner each year prior to the dates of the
respective final payments provided by law and all moneys so apportioned
shall be applied exclusively to school purposes authorized by law.
General state aid claims, on forms prescribed by the commissioner, shall
be submitted to the commissioner by September second of each school
year, except that the audit report required by subdivision three of
section twenty-one hundred sixteen-a of this chapter shall be submitted
to the commissioner by October fifteenth following the close of the
school year audited for all districts other than the city school
districts of the cities of Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Yonkers and New
York and by January first following the close of the school year audited
for such city school districts. No aid shall be paid to a school
district or board of cooperative educational services prior to the
submission of claims as required by the commissioner, except that no aid
certified as payable to a school district by the commissioner of
taxation and finance pursuant to paragraph (c) of subdivision three of
section thirteen hundred six-a of the real property tax law shall be
withheld due to the failure of the school district to submit general
state aid claims required by the commissioner, and except that no aids
shall be withheld due to the failure of a school district to submit the
audit report required by subdivision three of section twenty-one hundred
sixteen-a of this chapter until the thirtieth day following the due date
specified in this section for such report.