GAITHERSBURG, Md. — More than 4,000 kids are in the Maryland foster care system. Whenever any of them are abruptly taken out of a home or move from home-to-home, all they are given to put their belongings in is a trash bag.

Now, an effort is underway by state leaders in Annapolis to keep the trash bags where they belong, in the trash. The bill will give a child a duffel or piece of luggage to carry around their belongings with more respect.

“A trash bag was designed for trash. Not children’s clothing,” said Comfort Cases Founder, Rob Scheer.

It’s a problem Scheer dealt with first hand. A trash bag was all he had for his stuff when he was a foster kid.

Scheer runs Comfort Cases, a nonprofit that supplies foster kids with basic items like fresh toiletries. He says Maryland pays foster parents more than $450 million a year, but aren’t asked to provide a basic bag for their things.

When the five children Scheer adopted showed up at his doorstep, the state only issued them a garbage bag for all of their possessions.

“I don’t care how you do it .. but you cannot start a kid out in foster care with a trash bag,” Scheer said.

Scheer will be among several witnesses testifying at a state hearing in Annapolis on Thursday, about the bill introduced by Montgomery County State Delegate Joe Vogel.

“This is happening here. We are seeing this in the state of Maryland and we’re going to get this law passed to make sure we bring an end to what I consider to be an inhumane practice,” State Delegate Joe Vogel told Adam Longo.

The House will consider this bill in a committee on Thursday while there’s also a similar version winding its way through the state senate. A hearing on that bill is scheduled for next week.

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