Skip to agency navigation
Skip to main content

Official Website

of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

    The .gov means its official.

    Local, state, and federal government websites often end in .gov. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania government websites and email systems use "pennsylvania.gov" or "pa.gov" at the end of the address. Before sharing sensitive or personal information, make sure you're on an official state website. 
    Office of Children, Youth, and Families (OCYF)

    ​Bureau of Child and Family Services

    The Bureau of Child and Family Services (BCFS) is primarily responsible for monitoring the delivery of services by county and private children and youth social service agencies, including foster care agencies, adoption agencies, residential and supervised independent living facilities throughout the Commonwealth.

    Oversight of these programs is conducted by the four OCYF Regional Offices whose staff license and provide technical assistance and consultation to agencies. BCFS is also responsible for  investigating child abuse when the alleged perpetrator is a county agency employee or one of its agents and for conducting reviews of all child fatalities and near fatalities as a result of suspected child abuse that occur within the commonwealth. BCFS conducts complaint investigations to determine the validity of  the allegations and performs follow-up as needed. This Bureau also provides recommendations to BBFS on the levels of funding for county children and youth agencies as a result of programmatic analysis of the county’s NBPB submission.

    Bureau Information

    Director

    Caitlin Robinson
    Health and Human Services Building
    625 Forster Street, Room 103
    Harrisburg, PA 17120

      The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services (DHS), which is in part comprised of the Office of Children, Youth, and Families (OCYF) complies with applicable Federal civil rights laws and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability, or sex.