11 Investigates: CYF officials respond to backlash over recent child abuse cases

PITTSBURGH — After a week that saw

following their parents’ overdose deaths and an emergency order filed to

, many are demanding answers from officials within Allegheny County’s Department of Children, Youth and Family Services.

"Why are these kids going unnoticed?" said Jenn Parker, whose niece and nephew were taken into CYF’s custody Wednesday night.

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Parker said she made her first call to CYF in 2007 after she said she witnessed the abuse of her now-15-year-old niece at the hands of her sister and brother-in-law, James Mack and Christina Mack.

"I'd watch them beat the living crap out of her, smack her in the mouth,” she said.

Parker said she made 27 complaints over nine years, but she said nothing was done until police got an emergency order Wednesday night.

"We can't go into a home and just remove any child regardless of what we think. We do make a recommendation to a court, and the judges fulfill that obligation,” Assistant Director for Allegheny County CYF Jacki Hoover said.

She said case workers investigate every complaint, but several parties get to weigh in on what happens to the child and the court makes the final decision.

"Because of confidentiality laws, we often can't go back and tell the rest of the community, look, this is what happened on this case, or this is our response,” Hoover said. "We can't always reach out to certain family members and reveal that information."

Hoover said the system is set up to remove children from their parents as the very last option.

"We try to remove as a last resort. There's such a level of trauma that impacts the child and the family. That's not an episode you can ever take back," she said.

Parker, however, said something needs to change because the cycle of abuse is not likely broken after one intervention or parenting class. She said her niece and nephew are suffering.

"I'm scared for both of them to be put back in that home,” Parker said.

Hoover said another constraint that CYF faces is the lack of foster homes, especially for teenagers. She said so many children are removed from their home and placed in group homes, which, Hoover said, is not ideal.

Cox Media Group