The Lebanon County district attorney’s criminal investigation into whether the county’s Children and Youth Services agency failed to protect children in its care could be limited by an anticipated Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling in a similar case from Lackawanna County.
District Attorney Pier Hess Graf announced on Oct. 29, less than a week before she will stand for reelection, that she was looking into allegations that CYS, through inaction and neglect, failed in multiple cases to protect children entrusted to its care.
Read More: Lebanon County DA’s office to investigate Children & Youth Services agency
While Graf gave no hint as to what specific criminal offenses she suspects CYS caseworkers may have committed, similar cases involving child protective agencies in other Pennsylvania counties have involved prosecutions for endangering the welfare of children, a felony or misdemeanor depending on the facts, and failure to report child abuse by a mandated reporter, a misdemeanor for a first offense.
One such case, originating in Lackawanna County and decided in September 2025, is currently on appeal to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, the state’s highest judicial body.
Earlier in the Lackawanna case, the Pennsylvania Superior Court, the state’s second highest, ruled that an immunity provision in Pennsylvania’s Child Protective Services Law shielded caseworkers from endangering welfare of children charges, but not from failure to report abuse charges.
The Superior Court’s decision has been appealed to the state Supreme Court by both the Lackawanna County DA and the defendant caseworkers.
There is no word on when the state Supreme Court will make a decision. The court could simply decline to hear the appeal, in effect making the Superior Court’s decision final.
Other cases from other counties have addressed the same issue.
In a 2024 case from Adams County, CYS caseworkers were charged only with endangering the welfare of children. As with its Lackawanna County decision, the Superior Court ruled that CYS caseworkers were immune from being charged with that specific offense.
In July 2025, the Wyoming County DA dropped endangering welfare of children charges against a CYS caseworker, based on the Adams County decision.
Early on Thursday afternoon, Oct. 30, LebTown asked Graf whether she intended to delay a charging decision against Lebanon County CYS caseworkers until the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decides the pending Lackawanna County appeal. She had not responded as of publication time.
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