Most of New York City’s charter schools have disciplinary codes that do not meet either state or federal requirements, according to a report by a children’s advocacy organization that is to be released on Thursday.

The finding adds a new dimension to a long-running debate about the role of strict forms of discipline in the city’s public schools.

“These are public schools, and we should be expecting them to meet the requirements of the law,” said Paulina Davis, a staff attorney with the group, Advocates for Children, and the principal author of the report.

Publicly financed but privately run, charter schools often hover between the autonomy of independent schools and the accountability demanded of district public schools. With the Advocates for Children report, the question of whether they should be treated like private or public schools bubbles up again. Some in the charter community argue that a section of state education law related to discipline — one of the provisions this report says is being violated — should not apply to charter schools at all.