"human services" pay pretty close to the bottom of all skilled occupations. For some reason, save the world types aren't paid very well at all. If you look at any list of lowest paying degreed occupations, things like teacher, social worker, translator, and the like are on the bottom of the stack.
Nursing is hot but it's not easy to get into and is far from "least amount of time" - since you've been out of school a while and would need some refresher courses, you could expect a two year degree in nursing (ASN leading to an RN) to take about 3 to 3.5 years. Worth it in earnings but not your "least time" criteria. Engineering is always a top payer for college grads. Has been for a long time. That one too will require more time than "least time", usually 4+ years full time, and is exceptionally hard to do while raising two kids alone and having to work.
So that I don't sound negative though - let's get to an answer. First, stay away from any school at the community/technical college level that isn't owned by your state unless the whole bill is being paid by someone else. Take advantage of the PA community college system - it's where you want to be for most bang out of least time training. At this level you want "training" and not "education" - least time requires that we forgo all of the liberal arts/general education that comes with a higher (bachelor's and more) degree.
An Associate of Applied Science (AAS) is intended to provide you with marketable job training in 2 years. Certificates and diploma programs will take a little less. That's the timing you're looking at with a community college.
Jobs that "anyone and his pet monkey" can learn to do don't pay well. Things that are hard for "average Joe" pay better. Things that are extremely complicated for "average Joe" pay the best. "Anyone..." can be a case maintenance worker, medical billing/coding, administrative assistant, daycare teacher, etc... All of the traditional "women's office work" is pretty lowly paid, but it doesn't require much training. Don't waste your time at community college on these; very many employers will hire a HS grad for those jobs and you don't need the college.
Some fields such as nursing, radiology tech, cosmetology, bookkeeping/accounting clerk, etc... require math and science skills that "average Joe" doesn't have. They pay a bit better. [some folks make fun of cosmetology as not difficult but how many people do you know that cut their family's hair? It's an essential trade in all communities.] "Average Joe" also has a little trouble learning mechanical things. Repairers of cars, trucks, boats, lawn mowers, motorcycles, medical equipment, office equipment, plumbing, HVAC, etc... (everything except computers, computers aren't difficult to repair) seem to find jobs that don't pay very badly. Repairers of elevators make bank and repairers/inspectors of amusement rides don't do too shabby either. The more uncommon, complicated, or critical the thing you're repairing, the more you get paid to fix it.
Fields such as engineering technology, nuclear medicine technology, etc... that require more math than "average Joe" ever wanted to learn pay very well. Especially those that also require a license from the state or a certifying board. Engineering technicians always rank pretty highly on earnings lists of grads from 2 year programs.
All three of those groups spend 1-2 years getting some advanced training at the community college but they aren't payed back the same for that time and cost.
Then there are the occupational groups that can lead into self-employment if you want to. Mostly fixers of things such as plumbers, HVAC, carpenters, auto mechanics, and cosmetologists. Earnings here are heavily correlated to your skill and tenacity but they have an advantage over some others in that you don't have to have "an employer" if you don't want to.
http://www.acinet.org/acinet/oview5.asp?next=oview5&Level=Post2nd&optstatus=&jobfam=&id=1&nodeid=7&soccode=&stfips=00&ShowAll= is a list of the 50 highest paying occupations that require some training above high school or an associates degree. It's an interesting read. Many of these pay more than the average 4-year degree grad. Most of the better ones will require math skills. More than a few are in the health services fields and you'll notice that RN is not at the top of this list. There are a lot of engineering technology types and computer science (not computer users) types on this list.
http://www.acinet.org/acinet/oview5.asp?printer=&next=oview5&level=OJT&optstatus=110000000&id=1&nodeid=7&soccode=&stfips=00&jobfam=&group=1&showall=no is a list of highest payers that train on-the-job. Unfortunately, most of those aren't entry level jobs, they require years of experience "working your way up".