Hillsboro Police are investigating what led to the death of a 3-month-old girl Monday at her day care.

The baby was found unresponsive at the in-home day care and pronounced dead by paramedics, said Sgt. Eric Bunday, a spokesman for Hillsboro Police. Investigators are awaiting autopsy results, he said.

“Our hearts go out to this family,” he said. “What a tragic, awful situation.”

Bunday declined to disclose the infant’s name until after the autopsy was done.

The state Office of Child Care identified the day care where the baby died as Mrs. Williams Childcare. On Tuesday, the facility’s license to care for as many as 16 children remained active.

“Our hearts ache for the family,” said Jeannette Williams, who operates the day care out of her home in northwest Hillsboro. She declined further comment.

Deaths in Oregon

Eight children have died at licensed Oregon child care facilities since 2013. Nearly all were younger than 1.

After a child dies at a day care, state regulators can request the facility to temporarily shut down or issue an emergency order to suspend its license. In 2017, officials quickly suspended a Portland day care’s license after two infant deaths in 18 months.

Melanie Mesaros, a spokeswoman for the Office of Child Care, said her agency’s investigation into Mrs. Williams Childcare continues.

“There were no children in care today at the facility, and the provider has told us there will be no children in care this week,” she said.

On its website, Mrs. Williams Childcare advertises 24/7 child care for children up to age 12. The site says Williams has 35 years of “professional and practical childcare experience.”

Her facility was licensed in June 2014 and inspected twice most years since then, according to the records that the Office of Child Care publishes online. The records do not say what inspectors found during any of those visits because those details “are only available on paper,” the website says.

According to the website, inspectors visited the facility in February 2018 to investigate a complaint that a child was injured. An inspector closed the allegation as “unable to substantiate,” but the website does not say why the allegation could not be confirmed.

Under fire

The Office of Child Care has faced intense scrutiny for failing to disclose information to the public after children die in day cares. The August 2018 death of a baby boy at a Eugene day care did not come to public light for more than six months, until The Oregonian reported on the case in March 2019.

Nine days after the story was published, Gov. Kate Brown called for a public review of what information the state discloses to parents online about child care facilities.

“Parents deserve transparency and clear and easy access to information so that they can do their homework when making such an important decision,” she wrote at the time.

A committee that included Office of Child Care staffers, district attorneys, law enforcement officers, child welfare workers and lawmakers, among others, met several times to review the process but has not yet finalized its recommendations.

Meeting minutes say the committee agreed that notice of the death should be made public within 48 hours.

The notification about Monday’s death went up in less than 24.