§ 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 § 1306-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.