How to Report Child Abuse in Berks County and What Follows

To report suspected child abuse or neglect in Berks County, call ChildLine, the state's 24-hour hotline, at 1-800-932-0313, or call Berks County Children and Youth Services at 610-478-6700, which the county says takes reports around the clock. If a child is in immediate danger, call 911 first.

Anyone can report, and you do not have to be certain. Pennsylvania's Child Protective Services Law asks only for "reasonable cause to suspect," shields good-faith reporters from lawsuits and prosecution, and keeps the reporter's identity confidential. What follows is how the report moves, what the county must do and by when, what the person reported can do about it, and what happens to the child.

How to make the report

1. Call 911 if a child is being hurt right now or is in immediate danger.
2. Call ChildLine at 1-800-932-0313. The state's Report Child Abuse page says "trained specialists are available 24/7," that callers who speak other languages use the same number, and that TDD users call 1-866-872-1677. ChildLine is the state's intake desk: it takes the call and routes it to the county agency, to police, or to a state licensing office.
3. Or call Berks County Children and Youth Services at 610-478-6700. The county's Abuse Investigation page says "any person can contact Berks County Children and Youth Services at anytime to make an allegation of child abuse or neglect," and that caseworkers "are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week to receive referrals." Do not use the county's email form; its homepage says it "is not intended for the purpose of reports of child abuse or neglect."
4. If you are a mandated reporter, you may instead file online through the Child Welfare Portal, which the state calls CWIS. The county's link to compass.state.pa.us forwards there.
5. Have ready what the state says ChildLine will ask for: the child's name, description and age; the parent's name, address and phone; the suspected abuser's name, address and relationship to the child; the injury you saw; where it happened; whether the child is in immediate danger; and your relationship to the child.

You can report anonymously if you are not a mandated reporter. The state page says "permissive reporters may report anonymously"; a mandated reporter must give a name and a way to be reached.

What Berks County Children and Youth Services is

The county agency is on the 11th floor of the Berks County Services Center, 633 Court Street, Reading, PA 19601, phone 610-478-6700, fax 610-478-6799, TTD 610-478-6802, per its homepage, which lists "24-hour on call services for emergencies" and no office hours. The administrator is Barbara Jakubek. Its job, in its own words, is "to protect children, up to eighteen years of age, from abuse and neglect." The Abuse Investigation page says it "receives over 5,000 calls" a year and that "approximately, 100 Children and Youth Agency (CYS) caseworkers investigate more than 2,500 cases of abuse and neglect yearly"; the page carries no date for those figures.

The agency does not referee custody fights. Its Intake FAQs say it "only handles issues related to specific allegations of child abuse or neglect," does no custody evaluations and provides no supervised visitation for custody cases; for those, see our guide to filing for custody in Berks County. The same FAQ says the county "recommends that a child be at least 12 years of age to be left home alone."

Who must report

A mandated reporter is an adult the law requires to report suspected child abuse. Section 6311 of the Child Protective Services Law lists them: licensed health professionals; coroners and funeral directors; hospital staff; school employees; child-care workers; clergy; anyone, paid or unpaid, whose role in "a regularly scheduled program, activity or service" puts them in direct contact with children; social-service workers; police; EMS providers; public-library employees; people supervised by any of the above; independent contractors; attorneys for institutions that care for children; foster parents; and an adult family member who cares for a child in a family living home, community home or host home. The duty applies when the reporter meets the child through work or a program, is responsible for the child, hears "a specific disclosure" that an identifiable child is being abused, or hears someone 14 or older admit to abusing a child, and the state's FAQ says the disclosure rule applies "on" or "off" the clock.

Under section 6313, a mandated reporter "shall immediately make an oral report" to ChildLine or file electronically, and after an oral report "shall also make a written report, which may be submitted electronically, within 48 hours," on paper as form CY-47. A staff member at a school, hospital or agency must also "immediately thereafter notify the person in charge."

The penalty for a mandated reporter who "willfully fails" to report, under section 6319, starts at a second-degree misdemeanor and rises to a third-degree felony when the abuse is a first-degree felony and the reporter had direct knowledge, when the failure continues while the reporter knows or has reason to suspect the same person is still abusing a child or still has contact with children, or on a repeat offense; in the continuing-failure and repeat cases it becomes a second-degree felony when the abuse itself is a first-degree felony or higher. Act 126 requires every school entity to train its employees in recognizing and reporting abuse; the state lists approved courses on its Mandated Reporter Training page.

Abuse versus neglect: two kinds of report

Pennsylvania runs two tracks. A child protective services report (CPS) alleges child abuse as the law defines it. A general protective services report (GPS) alleges that a child needs protection for reasons that fall short of that definition. Both go to the same county agency and both can end in services or court. Only a founded or indicated abuse report appears on a child abuse history clearance, but a valid GPS report is still kept in the state database for ten years or until the youngest child in the report turns 23, under section 6337(d).

Child abuse, under section 6303(b.1), means "intentionally, knowingly or recklessly" causing bodily injury through a recent act or failure to act; faking or inducing a medical condition that leads to harmful treatment; causing serious mental injury; causing sexual abuse or exploitation; creating a reasonable likelihood of bodily injury or of sexual abuse; causing serious physical neglect; causing death; or engaging a child in trafficking. Certain acts count with no injury required: kicking, biting, throwing, burning, stabbing or cutting a child in a way that endangers the child; unreasonable restraint or confinement; forcefully shaking or striking a child under one; interfering with a child's breathing; and leaving a child with a known registered sex offender who is not the child's parent. "Recent" means within two years of the report, and the state's FAQ says sexual abuse, serious mental injury, serious physical neglect and deaths "have no time limit." Serious physical neglect means "a repeated, prolonged or egregious failure to supervise" a child, or failing to provide "adequate essentials of life, including food, shelter or medical care," when that endangers the child's life or health. A finding also requires a perpetrator as the law defines one, a list that includes a parent, a parent's current or former spouse or partner, someone 14 or older responsible for the child or living in the same home, and a relative 18 or older within the third degree.

Section 6304 lists what is not abuse: injuries "that result solely from environmental factors, such as inadequate housing, furnishings, income, clothing and medical care, that are beyond the control of the parent"; a parent's "reasonable force" for supervision, control and discipline; and most child-on-child harm unless it rises to a listed sex crime.

General protective services, under 55 Pa. Code § 3490.223, covers a child who "is without proper parental care or control, subsistence, education as required by law, or other care or control necessary for his physical, mental, or emotional health, or morals," who has been abandoned, who is habitually truant, or who is "ungovernable." If what you report does not meet the abuse definition, ChildLine can still send it to the county as a GPS referral under section 6334(f).

What happens after you call

1. ChildLine records the report and, under section 6334, "shall immediately transmit" notice to the county agency where the abuse is alleged to have happened, and to police if the report also describes a crime.
2. The county must see the child fast. Under section 6368 and 55 Pa. Code § 3490.55, the agency begins its investigation and sees the child "within 24 hours of receipt of the report," or immediately if emergency protective custody is needed or it cannot tell from the report whether it is. For a GPS report, § 3490.232 requires an immediate visit in the same emergencies and otherwise has the agency see "children who are most at risk" first.
3. Caseworkers investigate. The regulation requires interviews with the child, the parents, the alleged perpetrator, the reporter "if known," eyewitnesses, neighbors, relatives and school or day-care staff; at least one home visit; color photographs of any visible injury; and a medical exam where the report alleges serious physical injury. The agency may "provide or arrange for services necessary to protect the child" while it decides.
4. The people under investigation are told. Before interviewing a parent or alleged perpetrator, the agency must orally notify them of the report, their right to a lawyer at the interview and their right to seek amendment or expungement, with written notice within 72 hours. Notice can be delayed if it would endanger someone, cause the perpetrator to flee, or interfere with a criminal investigation.
5. The county decides within 60 days. Section 6368(n) says investigations "shall be completed within 60 days in all cases." 55 Pa. Code § 3490.67 has the county send its investigation report, form CY-48, to ChildLine within 30 days, and § 3490.69 says a report not filed within 60 days "shall be unfounded," unless a juvenile court petition, an arrest or a pending criminal case pauses the clock. A GPS assessment has the same 60-day deadline to accept the family for services, refer them elsewhere or close the case.
6. The report gets one of three labels. Under section 6303, a founded report rests on a court ruling: a guilty or no-contest plea, a conviction, a dependency or delinquency adjudication that found abuse, an ARD acceptance or consent decree on the same facts, or a final protection from abuse order that found the abuse occurred. An indicated report means the county found "substantial evidence" of abuse by a perpetrator from medical evidence, its own investigation or an admission; the administrator and the agency solicitor must sign off. Everything else is unfounded.
7. Notice goes out. Within three business days of receiving the county's results, the state mails the determination to the parents and the alleged perpetrator, not to the child. If a mandated reporter made the report, section 6368(h) requires the state to tell that reporter whether the report was founded, indicated or unfounded and what services the county arranged; Berks posts a Request for Information by a Mandated Reporter form for that purpose. Section 6340(a) lists who may receive report information, and a permissive reporter is not on that list.

An indicated or founded report puts the perpetrator's name in the statewide database kept by the office the state calls the ChildLine and Abuse Registry. Section 6338 says the database "shall indefinitely retain the names of perpetrators" of founded or indicated reports when their Social Security number or birth date is known; the rest of the record is purged when the child turns 23. That name shows up on a child abuse history clearance. An unfounded report is kept one year and then expunged under section 6337, longer if the family was accepted for services.

If you are the one who was reported

You have the right to be told of the report before you are interviewed, to have a lawyer there, and, under section 6340(b), to receive on written request "a copy of all information" in the file except what would identify the reporter. Berks takes record requests on a form emailed to BCCYS@berkspa.gov.

If the report comes back indicated, you can fight it. Section 6341 lets a person named as a perpetrator, "within 90 days of being notified of the status of the report," ask the Secretary of Human Services in writing to amend or expunge it, by administrative review or by appeal to a hearing. The department must answer a review request within 60 days; if it refuses, you have 90 more days to demand a hearing. At the hearing the county agency, not you, carries the burden of proof by substantial evidence and must hand over the relevant evidence from its investigation. Proceedings before the Bureau of Hearings and Appeals must begin within 90 days of the scheduling order, and the decision is due within 45 days after the hearing ends.

One warning on the deadline: the regulation, 55 Pa. Code § 3490.105a, still says a request must be "postmarked within 45-calendar days" of ChildLine's letter, while the statute, amended in 2014, says 90 days. Mail your request within 45 days and the conflict never matters. A founded report cannot be appealed this way; under section 6341(c.1) you must first get the underlying court ruling reversed or vacated. Any appeal is paused while a criminal, dependency or delinquency case on the same facts is pending.

What happens to the child

Most cases do not end in removal. The county's In-Home Services page says that after the assessment "very often, services can be provided while the family remains intact," through a Family Service Plan that "outlines the agency's recommended services to the family and the expectations made of the participants." For a child assessed as high risk who stays home, section 6375(m) requires the county to make sure the child is seen at least once a week.

When a child cannot stay, the law sets a clock:

1. Removal needs a judge. Under section 6315, "no county agency worker may take custody of the child without judicial authorization," and each court must keep a judge reachable "24 hours a day, 365 days a year." A police officer may take a child in "imminent danger" without an order under 42 Pa.C.S. § 6324, and a treating physician or hospital director may hold a child who needs immediate protection. Parents must be told, in writing within 24 hours, where the child is and why, "unless prohibited by court order," and no child may be held more than 24 hours unless the county obtains a court order.
2. A shelter-care hearing comes within 72 hours. 42 Pa.C.S. § 6332 requires an informal hearing "not later than 72 hours after the child is placed in detention or shelter care," where a judge or master decides whether staying home "would be contrary to the welfare of the child" and whether the county made reasonable efforts to avoid placement. The court must tell parents of their right to a lawyer, court-appointed if they cannot pay. If custody continues, the county files a dependency petition within 48 hours.
3. The dependency hearing follows within ten days of the petition if the child is in shelter care. The county must prove dependency "from clear and convincing evidence," and the child gets a lawyer. A dependent child, under 42 Pa.C.S. § 6302, is one "without proper parental care or control, subsistence, education as required by law, or other care or control necessary for his physical, mental, or emotional health, or morals," among other grounds. A disposition hearing must follow within 20 days if the child was removed.
4. Placement favors family. The court may place a child with "any relative" found qualified after a home study, and the county's Out-of-Home Placement page lists "living with relatives" first, ahead of foster homes, group homes and residential placement, adding that "in most cases the goal is to reunify the child with their parents." The county's resource-parent FAQ says the agency is "required to offer parents visits every other week for one hour" but in practice offers weekly or twice-weekly visits.
5. The court reviews the case every six months. Under 42 Pa.C.S. § 6351(e), permanency hearings happen within six months of removal and every six months after, and the judge must consult the child. Once a child has been in placement "for at least 15 of the last 22 months," the court must ask whether the county has filed to terminate parental rights, unless the child is with a relative, the county documents a compelling reason not to, or the family was never given the services it needed.

Dependency cases are heard by the Berks County Court of Common Pleas at the courthouse, 633 Court Street, Reading, PA 19601, 610-478-6208, open Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., per the court's page. If the abuse involves a parent or partner, a protection from abuse order is a separate route; see our PFA guide. When a child in county custody cannot go home, the case moves toward adoption, covered in our adoption guide.

Your name stays confidential, and you are protected

Section 6340(c) prohibits the state, the county, a school or an agency from releasing data "that would identify the person who made a report of suspected child abuse," with exceptions for police and prosecutors, who "shall treat all reporting sources as confidential informants," and for an investigation of a knowingly false report. Section 6318 gives anyone "acting in good faith" immunity from civil and criminal liability for making a report, cooperating with an investigation or testifying, and the good faith of a mandated reporter "shall be presumed."

Getting a child abuse clearance

The Pennsylvania Child Abuse History Certification is the document employers, schools, volunteer programs and foster agencies require to show you are not on the registry. The state's CY113 page sets the fee at $13 for employees and foster or adoptive parents and free for volunteers, "waived one time every 57 months." Apply online through the Child Welfare Portal, where you can view and print the result, or mail paper form CY113 to ChildLine and Abuse Registry, P.O. Box 8170, Harrisburg, PA 17105-8170, with results mailed "within 14 days." Questions go to 717-783-6211 or 1-877-371-5422, which the state's clearances page says answers Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; that page also says clearances must be renewed "every 60 months from the date of the oldest clearance." The certification is separate from the Pennsylvania State Police criminal check, covered in our PATCH guide, and from the FBI fingerprint check.

Becoming a foster or kinship parent in Berks

The county calls its foster parents resource parents. Its Berks Resource Parents page lays out four steps: call 610-478-6700 (toll-free 1-866-777-8780) and fill out "a short informational sheet"; attend the county's pre-service training; complete a home study over "multiple visits"; and wait for the Permanency Services Manager to review the file. The Foster Care page sets the minimums: be at least 21, pass a medical exam, pass child abuse and criminal clearances, finish the home study and attend trainings. Homes are limited to six children under 18, foster and birth children combined, and foster parents may not use physical discipline. Foster parents receive a per-day rate and mileage, and each child's medical care is covered by Medical Assistance.

The clearance costs are where the county's page and the state's disagree. The county lists "Childline and State Police Clearances ($20 for each individual 14 years or older who reside in your home)" and FBI clearances at $37 for anyone who has not lived in Pennsylvania since turning 18. The state's foster/adoptive FAQ, dated Oct. 1, 2026, prices the child abuse clearance at $13, the state police check at $22 and the FBI check at $27.95, requires all three of every prospective foster parent and every adult 18 or older living in the home at least 30 days a year, and requires an out-of-state child abuse clearance from anyone who lived outside Pennsylvania in the past five years. The state's fees and rules are the ones in force; ask the resource-parent coordinator, 610-478-6700 ext. 6831, before paying.

What the agency costs taxpayers

The county's 2026 Adopted Budget Book budgets $48,358,287 in Children & Youth Services spending for 2026, up $2,933,600 from the 2025 budget, with $14,605,272 for personnel and $31,629,940 for operating expenses. Revenue is budgeted at $40,915,955, of which $40,461,848 is grants; the $7,442,332 gap is covered by what the budget's fund-balance schedule labels "uses of General Fund Fund Balance for Special Revenue funds." On Sept. 10 the commissioners also committed the county's share of the state's 2027-28 needs-based child-welfare budget, covered in our meeting recap.

FAQ

Can I report child abuse in Berks County anonymously?

Yes, if you are not a mandated reporter. The state's Report Child Abuse page says permissive reporters "may report anonymously" by calling 1-800-932-0313, and the law bars the county and the state from releasing a reporter's identity except to law enforcement, the district attorney or an investigation of a false report, as explained above. Mandated reporters must give their name so caseworkers can follow up.

How long does a Children and Youth investigation take in Pennsylvania?

The county must see the child within 24 hours, or immediately in an emergency, and must finish the investigation within 60 days. If the county's written report does not reach ChildLine within 60 days, the regulation says the report "shall be unfounded," unless a court case or arrest on the same facts has paused the deadline.

What does an "indicated" report mean on a clearance?

It means the county found substantial evidence that you abused a child, without a court having ruled on it. Your name stays in the statewide database indefinitely if the state has your Social Security number or birth date, and it appears on a child abuse history clearance. You can appeal within 90 days of the notice under the statute; mail the request within 45 days to satisfy the older regulation too.

Can Children and Youth take my child without a court order?

Not a county caseworker. The law says no county worker may take custody "without judicial authorization," and judges are on call around the clock to issue those orders. A police officer or a treating doctor can hold a child in imminent danger without one, but a hearing must follow within 72 hours.

Sources

• Berks County Children and Youth Services: homepage, Abuse Investigation, Intake FAQs, In-Home Services, Out-of-Home Placement, Foster Care, Berks Resource Parents, Request for Record, Request for Information by a Mandated Reporter.
• Berks County Court of Common Pleas and Juvenile Probation Office; County of Berks 2026 Adopted Budget Book.
• Pa. Department of Human Services, Keep Kids Safe: Report Child Abuse, FAQ, Child Protective Services Laws, Mandated Reporter Training, Child Abuse History Certification, Child Abuse Clearances, Foster/Adoptive Parents FAQ (Oct. 1, 2026); Child Welfare Portal; form CY-47.
• Child Protective Services Law, 23 Pa.C.S. Chapter 63; Juvenile Act, 42 Pa.C.S. Chapter 63; 55 Pa. Code Chapter 3490, including §§ 3490.40, 3490.55, 3490.67, 3490.69, 3490.105a, 3490.223 and 3490.232.

To report: ChildLine, 1-800-932-0313 (TDD 1-866-872-1677), 24 hours; Berks County Children and Youth Services, 610-478-6700, 24-hour on-call, Berks County Services Center, 11th Floor, 633 Court Street, Reading, PA 19601 (fax 610-478-6799, TTD 610-478-6802; no office hours posted). Resource parents: 610-478-6700 or 1-866-777-8780. Clearance questions: 1-877-371-5422, Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Berks County Courthouse, 633 Court Street, Reading, PA 19601, 610-478-6208, Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.