ALBANY – The state Education Department released data yesterday on violent and disruptive incidents in schools across the state following criticism the information has not been posted early enough in past years for parents to decide whether to transfer their children to safer schools.

The data, available on the department’s Web site, covers incidents during the 2003-04 and 2004-05 school years.

School districts are required to report violent and disruptive incidents to the state under the 2000 Safe Schools Against Violence in Education Act. Education officials are required to review the information to determine if any schools should be designated as “persistently dangerous” and to publish an annual list of those schools.

The education commissioner, Richard Mills, said the department had not yet determined which schools would be labeled persistently dangerous, but said it would do so before the next school year begins. Officials are also reassessing the criteria for the designation, he said.

The data released yesterday showed New York City schools, with more than 1 million students, in 2004-05 reported just four cases of assaults with serious injury, while the other large city districts in the state, with 111,000 students, reported a total of 17.

Critics have said the department relies on flawed methods to collect the data it uses to determine which schools are classified as dangerous. Last fall, the department listed just five schools as persistently dangerous. The list did not include 11 New York City schools deemed among the most dangerous.

A school is labeled persistently dangerous if it meets or exceeds a ratio of violent incidents to enrollment for two consecutive years. Parents can then try to transfer their children to safer nearby schools if space is available.