Washington ? Nearly three months into the spring semester, Army veteran Melishsa Fairman can’t afford some textbooks because the Department of Veterans Affairs hasn’t come through with her education benefits.

“I’m making it, barely. But I’m making it,” said Fairman, 28, who’s studying business at Tallahassee Community College.

About 100 of the 475 students who attend the Florida college with help from the Montgomery GI Bill and other VA education programs are still waiting on payments even though they applied for the benefits in December, said Delorise Robinson, the college’s veterans affairs specialist.

Nationwide, more than 35,000 students have waited more than 60 days for the VA to approve their education claims in recent months, prompting colleges to defer tuition payments and offer emergency loans to students waiting on checks.

Nearly 100,000 other veterans have experienced delays of one to two months, according to a Knight Ridder analysis of VA claims data for Oct. 1-Feb. 28.

The agency’s goal is to process first-time education claims in 25 days and claims from continuing students in 13 days. About half of 88,000 first-time applicants and 80 percent of 460,000 continuing students had their claims processed in a month or less, the data for that period show.

Jack McCoy, director of the VA education service, said an influx of veterans going to school with the VA’s help, too few claims processors and a computer glitch last fall that kept 67,000 claims from being processed automatically are among the reasons for the spring backlog.

To cope, the VA hired additional workers at its four regional education claims processing centers and has authorized them to work on Saturdays.

McCoy said he urges school officials to let the VA know about long-overdue claims.

“If you have someone you’ve sent an enrollment certification in on and … it’s been a really long time, please call and tell us,” McCoy said. “We’re going to fix those cases.”

VA education programs pay eligible veterans up to $1,004 a month while they’re attending school and are a key inducement used by military recruiters. More than 500,000 veterans and eligible dependents will use VA education benefits this year.

While claims backlogs are common, particularly during peak enrollment periods, several college officials said the delays this spring were worse than usual.

“I had 10 brand-new veterans apply this last semester and I haven’t had any of them get any of their money yet. They’re into the third month of the semester and they’re like: ‘What do I do?'” said Charlene Lance, who handles VA certifications at the University of Akron’s Wayne College in Ohio.

About 74,000 veterans’ education claims awaited processing by the VA as of March 19, more than double the number this time last year, agency records show.

The backlog spiked to more than 115,000 last month, prompting the St. Louis office to warn Midwest schools that it was taking eight to 10 weeks to process claims submitted electronically — and three weeks longer for those submitted on paper.

Students in the upper Midwest, whose claims are processed by the VA’s St. Louis office, and students in the Southeast, whose claims are processed in Atlanta, have experienced some of the biggest delays, according to VA data, memos and interviews with VA and college officials.

The VA office in Muskogee, Okla., which handles schools in the Southwest, and the one in Buffalo, N.Y., which handles Northeast schools, have had fewer problems, they said.