1. (1) Apportionment shall mean any apportionment of State aid included in the general support for public schools appropriation and moneys apportioned for support of boards of cooperative educational services and employment preparation education aid.
2. (2) Claim shall mean all applications for approval and reports of proposed or actual data to be submitted for a particular period of time in a format established by the commissioner, including, but not limited to expenditures, revenues, levies, fund balances, counts of pupils or other participants served, school bus mileage, routing and trip data, or program activities, that are required by the commissioner as justification for payment of a specific apportionment or for confirmation of a specific apportionment, whither such claim is due from a school district directly or from a board of cooperative educational services on behalf of a school district.

3. (3) Period of limitation shall mean three years after June 30th of the school year for State aid claims for which payment is first to be made in the 1995-96 or prior school years, two years after June 30, 1997 for claims for which payment is first to be made in the 1996-97 school year, and one year after June 30th of the school year for claims for which payment is first to be made in the 1997-98 school year and thereafter.

   (b) General limitation on aid payments.

   Except as otherwise authorized by statute, the commissioner shall not certify a payment of an apportionment to a school district based on a claim submitted later than the last day of the applicable period of limitation; provided that such limitation shall not apply where the specific statute governing the apportionment imposes a shorter period of limitation on payment of aid; and, provided further, in the case of a final cost report of expenditures claimed for an apportionment of building aid for construction or remodeling projects, the applicable limitation for submittal of such final cost report shall be measured from June 30th of the school year in which the final cost report for the project must be submitted to the commissioner pursuant to section 155.2(e) of this Title.

   (c) Waivers.

   Upon application, the commissioner may grant a waiver from the provisions of this section applicable to State aid that would have been payable in the 1991-92 or an earlier school year. Such a waiver may be granted to a school district for the period from July 1, 1995 to July 1, 1996, upon a finding that a waiver is in the best educational interests of the district pursuant to guidelines to be developed by the commissioner and approved by the Director of the Budget. Such guidelines shall include, but need not be limited to, a minimum requirement that the aggregate total amount of State aid to be lost would exceed one percent of the district's total State aid recorded in the general fund, net of any contributions to New York State, as reported in the annual financial report of the district for the 1991-92 school year. Applications for a waiver shall be submitted to the commissioner no later than September 1, 1995.

(a) Definitions.

As used in this section: