How to Fill Out and Submit the Pennsylvania CY-47 Child Abuse Form

Pennsylvania’s CY-47 is the written follow-up report that mandated reporters must submit after phoning the ChildLine hotline at 1-800-932-0313 to report suspected child abuse. You have 48 hours from that call to deliver a completed Pennsylvania CY-47 child abuse form to the county children and youth agency assigned to the case.¹ If you instead filed your initial report electronically through the state’s Child Welfare Information Solution (CWIS) portal, that submission counts as both your oral and written report, and no separate CY-47 is required.²

When the CY-47 Is Required

Only one path triggers the paper form: a phone call to ChildLine. The call satisfies the immediate oral-report duty, and the written CY-47 that follows within 48 hours completes the reporting requirement under 23 Pa. C.S. § 6313.¹

Filing through the CWIS portal on the Department of Human Services website is the other option, and it collapses both reports into one electronic submission. You get an immediate digital confirmation that your report was received, and the CY-47 drops out of the process entirely. If you called ChildLine and need the paper form, download the current version directly from the Department of Human Services website.³

How to Fill Out the CY-47

The form has eight numbered sections. Work through them in order and fill every field you can. Where you lack information, write “unknown” rather than leaving a blank. Stick to what you directly observed or what the child told you; describe the injury, behavior, or statement, and let investigators draw the conclusions.³

Sections 1 Through 4: The Child and Family

Section 1 identifies the child: last name, first name, middle initial, Social Security number, date of birth, sex, home address, and county. Section 1A captures the child’s present location if different from the home address, such as a hospital, relative’s house, or shelter.

Sections 2 and 3 cover the biological or adoptive mother and father: name, SSN, date of birth, phone number, address, and county. Section 4 covers any other person responsible for the child, with the addition of that person’s relationship to the child.

Few reporters know every SSN or date of birth. That is fine. A report with a child’s name, approximate age, and a location where the child can be found is far more useful than a complete dossier filed late.

Section 5: The Alleged Perpetrator

Section 5 asks for the suspected abuser’s name, SSN, date of birth, sex, relationship to the child, address, county, phone number, and employer information including the employer’s address. Employer detail matters when the suspected abuse occurred in a daycare, school, or residential facility.

Section 6: Household Composition

List every other person living in the child’s home who was not named in Sections 1 through 5, with name and relationship to the child. Investigators use this to understand who else has access to the child and whether other children in the household may be at risk.

Section 7: Actions Taken

Check the boxes for any steps you have already taken or are about to take: notifying the coroner or medical examiner, ordering X-rays, taking photographs, hospitalizing the child, notifying police, ordering medical tests, or taking the child into protective custody. There is also an “Other” field. This section tells investigators what has already happened so they don’t duplicate steps or miss urgent ones.

Section 8: Safety Concerns and Risk Factors

Section 8 is the most detailed part of the form. Five narrative subsections ask you to describe what you know:

8A — The child: physical and behavioral health, mood, intellectual functioning, communication and social skills, school performance, and whether the child has expressed any suicidal or homicidal thoughts.
8B — The adult caregivers: cognitive, emotional, behavioral, physical, and social functioning; mental health or substance use issues; criminal history; domestic violence; employment status and financial stress; home conditions and working utilities; and the primary language of the household.
8C — Parenting capacity: whether caregivers have appropriate knowledge and skills, whether they adequately supervise the child, and whether they are willing and able to protect the child.
8D — Discipline: methods used, whether discipline is age-appropriate, and any cultural practices influencing discipline.
8E — Additional information: anything else relevant to the investigation that has not already been covered.

Each subsection has an “Information Unknown” checkbox for areas where you have no knowledge. Use it honestly rather than guessing.

What the Statute Requires You to Include

Section 6313 lists 11 categories of information a written report should contain “if known.” Several map directly to the form’s fields, but a few catch reporters off guard:¹

Where the abuse occurred: not just the child’s home address, but the specific location of the incident if it happened elsewhere.
Evidence of prior abuse: any indication that this child, a sibling, or another child has been previously harmed by the same individual.
Family composition: captured in Section 6, but the statute makes clear it is a legal requirement rather than optional context.
Your contact information: name, phone number, and email address. Title and employer are not required, but providing them helps investigators reach you for follow-up.
Actions you took: anything done under the authority of related statutes, such as photographs, medical tests, or protective custody.

The “if known” qualifier matters. The law does not penalize you for lacking a piece of information. It penalizes you for not reporting at all.

How to Submit the Form

The completed CY-47 goes to the county children and youth agency covering the jurisdiction where the abuse occurred, which is not necessarily where you or the child currently are. Pennsylvania has 67 county agencies, so confirm the right one before you send.

You can mail or hand-deliver the form. If you mail it, use a method with tracking or delivery confirmation so you can prove you met the 48-hour deadline. Keep a copy of the submitted form and any confirmation you receive; that documentation is your proof of compliance if the timeline is ever questioned.

If the deadline is approaching and you have not sent the paper form, filing through the CWIS portal is faster. And if you already filed your initial report through CWIS rather than calling ChildLine, you do not owe a separate CY-47 at all.

Missing the 48-hour window does not stop the investigation. The county agency must proceed as though you had complied on time.¹ A missed deadline does, however, expose you to the penalties below, so treat it as firm.

You Are Protected When You Report in Good Faith

Under 23 Pa. C.S. § 6318, anyone who makes a report, cooperates with an investigation, or testifies in a related proceeding in good faith is immune from both civil and criminal liability.⁴ For mandated reporters, good faith is legally presumed, which means anyone suing you carries the burden of proving you acted in bad faith. The immunity also covers related actions taken in good faith, such as photographing injuries, arranging medical tests, or cooperating with investigators.

Reports filed under the Child Protective Services Law are confidential, including the CY-47, report summaries, and any photographs or X-rays gathered during the investigation. Your identity as the reporter is part of that confidential file and is not disclosed to the family or the alleged perpetrator through normal channels.⁵

Penalties for Not Filing

Willfully failing to report suspected child abuse is a crime under 23 Pa. C.S. § 6319. The severity escalates with the underlying abuse and with any pattern of continued silence:⁶

Misdemeanor of the second degree: the default classification for a mandated reporter who willfully fails to report.
Felony of the third degree: when the reporter willfully fails to report, the underlying abuse is a first-degree felony or higher, and the reporter has direct knowledge of the nature of the abuse.
Felony of the third degree (continuing failure): when the failure to report continues while the reporter knows or has reasonable cause to suspect the same individual is still abusing a child or still has direct contact with children.
Felony of the second degree: for a continuing failure where the underlying abuse is a first-degree felony or higher, or for a second or subsequent conviction at that threshold.

Separately, intentionally or knowingly making a false child abuse report is a misdemeanor of the second degree under 18 Pa. C.S. § 4906.1, as is intentionally inducing a child to make a false claim.⁷ That statute targets deliberate fabrication, not good-faith reports that turn out to be unsubstantiated.

1
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code 23 6313 – Reporting Procedure
2
Department of Human Services. Report Child Abuse
3
Pennsylvania Department of Human Services. CY-47 Report of Suspected Child Abuse
4
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code 23 6318 – Immunity From Liability
5
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code 23 Chapter 63 – Child Protective Services
6
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code 23 6319 – Penalties
7
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes 18 4906.1 – False Reports of Child Abuse