In the first sign of officials taking responsibility for the bloodbath, the North Ossetia region's Interior Minister Kazbek Dzantiyev offered his resignation, although it was not accepted.
"After what happened in Beslan I have no right to hold this post, both as an officer and a gentleman," Itar-Tass news agency quoted Mr Dzantiyev as saying.
Official accounts say forces moved on the school gymnasium on Friday after Chechen separatists holding 1,000 people hostage started firing on children fleeing in panic from two explosions.
It was the bloodiest end to a hostage crisis in decades.
Half the dead were children. The rest were teachers, parents and relatives attending festivities on the first day of term.
The carnage has thrown President Vladimir Putin's policy in the turbulent Caucasus region into disarray and raised serious doubts whether he can end Chechen separatism. The siege followed bombings aboard two airliners and by a Moscow metro station.