The New York Times | The delays “make this system so burdensome for parents, and harm students in so many ways,” said Rebecca Shore, the litigation director at Advocates for Children, the nonprofit group that filed the 2003 suit with the firm Milbank.

The process, she added, “is especially hard for families who do not have resources.”

One public school parent, Maria, who spoke on the condition that she be identified by only her first name because of privacy concerns, said she filed a special education complaint four years ago for her son David, who has a learning disability.

A year later, the Education Department was ordered to pay for David, now 16, to attend a private tutoring center in Manhattan. But at one point, it owed the center more than $60,000, Maria’s lawyer said, and warned that her son might lose his spot if payment did not arrive.

The city was also required to pay about $47 a week for MetroCards to travel from the Bronx, she said. But Maria said she spent more than $1,200 of family funds on transportation while waiting months for reimbursement, and was forced to cut down on spending on groceries.