Public and private child protection advocates in North Dakota take issue with a national report that says the state does not release enough information about life-threatening or fatal child abuse cases.

North Dakota was one of only 10 states that got a failing grade in a report released Tuesday by the Washington-based First Star group and the University of San Diego School of Law's Children's Advocacy Institute. The authors say those states withhold information that would make child welfare systems more accountable and help prevent future tragedies.

"It's important for people to keep in mind that we are not failing in our efforts to protect children in North Dakota, that this grade is given on a narrow category about public records and public information," said Tara Muhlhauser, deputy director of the children and family services division in the North Dakota Human Services Department.

The report says North Dakota law is vague and unclear. "It authorizes the release of information but provides no further specificity regarding what type of information will be disclosed," the report says.

It also gives North Dakota low marks because child abuse and neglect proceedings are largely closed to the public.

Emily Reinig, a legal intern with the Children's Advocacy Institute, said that group would like to see the state require the release of more information in child abuse deaths or near-deaths, including the circumstances surrounding the incidents and any prior actions by child protection workers involving the children.

Muhlhauser said the failing grade is undeserved. She said human services officials withhold only information that is considered confidential under state or federal law. Closed proceedings ensure respect for families and are a widely accepted practice, she said.

Kathy Mayer, director of the nonprofit group Prevent Child Abuse North Dakota, said she also believes state law covering the release of information is adequate.

"Our disclosure laws are all (built) around not re-victimizing kids," she said.

"If they opened up court proceedings, everybody could come in and see who that child was and what happened to them," Mayer said.

Mayer said she would consider supporting any changes that would help prevent child abuse and neglect, but would not support a change "just because there's a few people who feel they have a need to know."

The report also says North Dakota law covering the release of information deals with child abuse or neglect cases that result in death but not those that result in near-fatalities.

Muhlhauser said local law enforcement officers and prosecutors in North Dakota often release information in such cases anyway "because it's potentially chargeable."

The report says about 1,500 children die each year in the United States because of abuse or neglect. Mayer said North Dakota, a rural state with a small population, on average has only one such case each year.

"When there is a death … I feel very comfortable that (authorities) make the public aware of it, and what the cause of it was," she said.