Dauphin County-based residential youth shelter files lawsuit against Deputy Secretary of Office of Children, Youth, and Families and Director of OCYF’s Central Region over “abuse of power”

August 17, 2026

by Laura Harding

The operator of a trauma-informed care residential youth shelter at the former Schaffner Youth Center in Steelton, Pennsylvania issued the following press release ahead of a lawsuit filed last week against two state officials in Commonwealth Court:

HARRISBURG, PA.—BCL Partners, LLC d/b/a Leading Youth for Excellence, a youth shelter based in Steelton, Pennsylvania, filed a lawsuit against Lavall Miller-Wilson in his official capacity as the Deputy Secretary, Office of Children, Youth & Families (“OCYF”), and Gabrielle “Gabi” Williams in her official capacity as the Director, Central Region of OCYF in the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania. Leading Youth for Excellence, also known as “L.Y.F.E.” and formerly known as the Schaffner Youth Center, says that it initiated the litigation against the two government officials to hold them accountable for their “abuse of power.”

According to the Complaint, L.Y.F.E. was a trauma-informed care residential youth shelter that operated under a license issued by the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services. The license authorized L.Y.F.E. to provide community-based residential services for dependent and delinquent children. As a DHS-licensed facility, L.Y.F.E. was subject to oversight by OCYF, an agency within DHS. Notably, Deputy Secretary Miller-Wilson, who leads OCYF, and Director Williams, who oversees one of its four regions, had to approve L.Y.F.E.’s budget each year as a condition precedent for various county children and youth agencies to remit payment to L.Y.F.E. for services rendered. The 2025-2026 fiscal year began on July 1, 2025, and ended on June 30, 2026. L.Y.F.E. submitted its budget for the fiscal year to OCYF, on May 1, 2025. Nonetheless, and despite OCYF claiming that it performed a “pending final review” of L.Y.F.E.’s budget documentation on December 22, 2025, Deputy Secretary Miller-Wilson and Director Williams did not approve L.Y.F.E.’s budget before the end of the 2025-2026 fiscal year. It was not until August 11, 2026—after L.Y.F.E. threatened litigation against Deputy Secretary Miller-Wilson and Director Williams—that they finally approved the budget. Meanwhile, on February 25, 2026, Deputy Secretary Miller-Wilson revoked L.Y.F.E.’s license and ordered all children removed, citing what he called serious safety violations.

L.Y.F.E. alleges in its Complaint that the two events are linked and that Deputy Secretary Miller-Wilson’s and Director Williams’ refusal to approve the budget was “part of a coordinated campaign to harm L.Y.F.E. and starve it of the necessary funds to prosecute L.Y.F.E.’s appeal of their pretextual revocation of L.Y.F.E.’s license.” “Because we provided trauma-informed care to high-risk youth—many of whom other facilities will not accept—it was impossible to eliminate every incident in a facility like ours. What matters is whether you respond appropriately to an incident, correct problems, cooperate with regulators, and continuously improve, and that is exactly what L.Y.F.E. did,” said Bilal Hasan, co-owner of L.Y.F.E.

“We went from 141 areas of noncompliance to five, an over 96% reduction, in less than three years’ time. In fact, during the two-and-a-half year period in which L.Y.F.E. was on provisional status, L.Y.F.E. demonstrated such dramatic and sustained improvement in its compliance with the applicable statutes, ordinances, and regulations that DHS restored its full license in February of 2025. But that did not stop Deputy Secretary Miller-Wilson and Director Williams from continuing to target L.Y.F.E., culminating with their revocation of our license earlier this year.”

“Concerns over student safety had nothing to do with Deputy Secretary Miller-Wilson’s and Director Williams’ decision to revoke our license. That was just a pretext,” said James Ellison, co-owner, Chief Executive Officer, General Counsel, and Compliance Officer of L.Y.F.E. “Mr. Hasan and I met with Deputy Secretary Miller-Wilson at the end of May, and he barely uttered a word about student safety.” “Rather,” Ellison continued, “Deputy Secretary Miller-Wilson complained about us offering therapy, counseling, and other enhanced services to our students and allowing them to stay at the Center beyond 30 days. Deputy Secretary Miller-Wilson said we should think of ourselves as a ‘weigh station,’ offer the bare minimum services to students, and move them in-and-out of the shelter like freight even if they have no other place to go. Deputy Secretary Miller-Wilson also complained about us for accepting youth from Dauphin County despite the fact that we operated in a Dauphin County-owned building. And Deputy Secretary Miller-Wilson seemed weirdly obsessed with L.Y.F.E.’s finances.” Ellison added: “None of the concerns Deputy Secretary Miller-Wilson raised during that meeting appear anywhere in the revocation or removal orders he issued, which further proves that he and Director Wiliams had an ulterior motive in shutting down L.Y.F.E.”

Several local officials have expressed concern over L.Y.F.E.’s closure. George P. Hartwick, III, a Dauphin County Commissioner, sent a letter to DHS Secretary Valerie Arkoosh, MD, MPH in May, writing, in part: “Since the shutdown, we have become increasingly concerned about: [t]he displacement of youth without clear or coordinated placement activities; [r]eports of youth becoming missing or otherwise unaccounted for; [and] [t]he loss of a facility specifically equipped to manage higher-risk cases.” Corey Dickerson, Chief Detective for the Criminal Investigation Division of the Dauphin County Office of District Attorney, also sent a letter to Secretary Arkoosh in April, noting that L.Y.F.E. “has supported youth from approximately 20 counties and has played an important role in stabilizing some of Pennsylvania’s most vulnerable populations” and urging Secretary Arkoosh to consider “the system-wide consequences of the closure.”

According to its Complaint, L.Y.F.E. is seeking to recover nearly $2.8 million in damages, exclusive of interest, costs, attorney’s fees, and punitive damages, due to Deputy Secretary Miller-Wilson’s and Director Williams’ refusal to perform their respective duties. “L.Y.F.E. is not brining this litigation lightly,” said Mr. Hasan. “We recognize that, if we succeed in getting our license restored, L.Y.F.E. will likely be subject to retaliation by Deputy Secretary Miller-Wilson and/or Director Williams for filing this lawsuit. But Deputy Secretary Miller-Wilson’s and Director Williams’ vendetta against L.Y.F.E. did not just cause harm to L.Y.F.E.,” Mr. Hasan continued. “It also caused harm to the communities and vulnerable youth L.Y.F.E. served, so we feel compelled to hold Deputy Secretary Miller-Wilson and Director Williams accountable for their wrongdoing.” L.Y.F.E.’s Complaint is attached, along with the letters submitted by Commissioner Hartwick and Chief Detective Dickerson to Secretary Arkoosh. Casey Alan Coyle, Esquire of Marshall Dennehey, P.C. is representing L.Y.F.E. in the litigation, which is captioned, “BCL Partners v. Miller-Wilson, et al.” docketed at 370 MD 2026, and pending before the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court, which is sitting as a trial court. For questions or interview requests, please contact Attorney Coyle. His office number is (717) 651-3710, his cell phone number is (267) 939-5832, and his email address is cacoyle@mdwcg.com.