A state supreme court judge ruled this week that the state cannot withhold $260 million in aid from the city’s Department of Education as punishment for the city’s failure to finalize a teacher evaluation plan, the New York Times reported.

The preliminary injunction comes after city school parents filed a lawsuit this month arguing that the loss of funds would only hurt students.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he would withhold the money after the Bloomberg administration and the teachers’ union failed to reach an agreement on a teacher evaluation system by Jan. 17. Though the governor’s decision was made to motivate the city and the union to meet the deadline, Judge Manuel Mendez agreed with the parents, saying innocent children who need the money could be hurt by the cuts.

The city and the union have blamed each other for the delay to reach agreement.

Cuomo said earlier this week that the state Education Department would impose an evaluation system on city schools if the two sides cannot reach a deal by June 1.

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After the teachers union and the city failed to reach agreement on a teacher evaluation system for city schools by the deadline last month, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has announced that schools will get a state-imposed system by June 1, the Daily News reported.

Cuomo said that State Education Commissioner John King will take ideas from the union and the city into consideration, and use his own discretion to create a final plan.

The governor will include the teacher evaluation bill in his 30-day budget amendment that will be formally submitted on Thursday.

The mandatory plan will prevent the city from losing hundreds of millions of dollars in school aid. The Department of Education already lost $250 million in state educational aid last month when it did not reach an agreement by Jan. 17.

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