The state was among 10 given failing grades in the report to be released today by two child advocacy groups: First Star, based in Washington, and the Children's Advocacy Institute at the University of San Diego School of Law.

The organizations sought to evaluate how well all 50 states comply with the federal Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, which provides federal grants for states to improve child protective services and abuse-prevention programs. The federal law requires states to have policies governing public disclosure of fatal or near-fatal abuse cases.

The survey determined that Pennsylvania lacks a public-disclosure policy, based on an analysis of a section of the state's domestic-relations law. The law requires the Department of Public Welfare to provide quarterly reports to the governor and legislature that include summaries of abuse-related deaths and near-deaths, but "does not specifically authorize the release of such reports to the public," according to the report.

But changes to state law that Gov. Rendell signed in late 2006 required the department to incorporate the quarterly reports for the first time in its 2007 child-abuse report, which was released earlier this month, said Cathy Utz of the department's Office of Children, Youth and Families. The annual report is routinely released to the public and available on the department's Web site, www.dpw.state.pa.us.

Without naming the victims, the state's annual report provides summaries of 42 fatal and life-threatening cases reported since May, when the new reporting requirement took effect. The summaries include details of each incident, general descriptions of the perpetrators, and whether county child-welfare agencies had previously been involved with the victim's family.

"I think we really have shifted our position over the years, and especially within the current administration, to have more transparency," Utz said.

Pennsylvania received $921,885 in federal grant money during the 2007-08 fiscal year, Utz said.

Emily Reinig of the Children's Advocacy Institute, the report's chief author, said the organizations spent close to a year and a half compiling the data.

"The states were given ample opportunity to correct flaws in what we thought was their policy on the books," Reinig said.

Pennsylvania child advocates said the recent changes to state law represented some progress toward improving the accountability of the state's child-welfare system. "We have more openness in reporting" cases, said Angela Liddle, executive director of the Pennsylvania Family Support Alliance.

But the state still faces challenges in providing a more complete picture of such cases because county officials sometimes use different standards for determining whether a child's death stemmed from abuse, said Cathleen Palm, cofounder of the Protect Our Children Committee, a statewide advocacy group.

"There are still some fundamental issues in Pennsylvania as to how we uniformly look at child deaths," Palm said.