NEW YORK - Spring is just days away but tens of thousands of eighth graders still have no idea which high schools they've gotten into.

Admission offers, usually released in early March, have been delayed.

"The decisions still haven't come out yet and the kids are on pins and needles and their anxiety levels are increased and they're teenagers and they're going through puberty, ya know the city should have informed us already," said Christina Johnson, the Parent Association President at I.S. 239 Mark Twain School.

The City Department of Education blames a lawsuit challenging Mayor Bill de Blasio's attempts to admit more students of color to the city’s eight elite specialized public high schools.

The mayor wants to expand the Discovery program, which grants admission to some students who scored just below the cutoff on the citywide entrance exam. A judge ruled late last month the city could move forward with the mayor's plan and now the education department is scrambling to send out the notifications for admissions to all high schools.

Three of Shirley Chin's children have gone to an elite high schools and now she's waiting to hear about whether her youngest will be going to high school in Manhattan or Brooklyn.

"Well she's said, 'I want to know, I want to know where I want to go: LaGuardia or Fort Hamilton.' Those schools that she applied to," Chin said.

In a statement, the city Department of Education said, "It's unfortunate that the lawsuit challenging our plan to make the specialized high schools stronger and more diverse affected the timing of offer letters to 75,000 families. The delay is causing a special challenge for parents and students weighing whether to attend a public or private high school.

Parents considering the private school option already have put down one deposit. Soon, they have to put down a second, non-refundable deposit. Some parents write that second check only if they know their child did not get into their public high school of choice.

"You have to have a backup, many people, if they don't want to go to their zoned high school their choice is a private school," Johnson said.

The city says the long awaited admission letters could be sent Monday.