1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Every Child Deserves a Family Act . 2. Findings and purpose (a) Findings Congress finds the following: (1) Every child or youth unable to live with their family of origin is entitled to a supportive and affirming foster care placement. Federal law requires, and child welfare experts recommend, that children and youth be placed with a family or in the most family-like setting available. (2) Thousands of children and youth lack a stable, safe, and loving temporary or permanent home and have been placed in a congregate care setting, which is associated with more placements, poorer educational outcomes, and greater risk of further trauma. More homes are needed to accommodate the growing number of children and youth involved with child welfare services. (3) In 2017, there were an estimated 443,000 children and youth in the United States foster care system, and 123,000 were eligible and waiting to be adopted. Tragically, approximately 20,000 aged out of the child welfare system without a forever family, placing them at higher risk of negative outcomes including poverty, homelessness, incarceration, and early parenthood. (4) Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ( 42 U.S.C. 2000d et seq.) protects people from discrimination based on race, color, or national origin in programs, activities, and services administered or performed by child welfare agencies. Eliminating discrimination in child welfare based on religion, sex (including sexual orientation and gender identity), and marital status would increase the number and diversity of foster and adoptive homes able to meet the individual needs of children and youth removed from their homes. (5) Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning (referred to in this Act as LGBTQ ) youth are overrepresented in the foster care system by at least a factor of 2, comprising at least 22 to 30 percent of children and youth in foster care. (A) While some LGBTQ youth enter foster care for similar reasons as non-LGBTQ youth, the