The Illinois Supreme Court rejected the claim that the exemption of certain church-operated childcare facilities from state licensing amounted to an unconstitutional "religious preference."
The exemption was available only to church-operated childcare facilities that were "a component of a religious, nonprofit elementary school," and was set forth in a statute that exempted a variety of childcare facilities operated in conjunction with schools.
Such an exemption, concluded the court, was permissible since it was narrowly drawn and did not "single out" religious facilities for favored treatment. Pre-School Owners Association v. Department of Children and Family Services, 518 N.E.2d 1018 (Ill. 1988)