Can a washing machine help a child go to school? Whirlpool’s Care Counts program, started in 2015, puts washers and dryers inside US schools with high absenteeism so students can get their clothes cleaned discreetly. The company reports that many of the highest-risk elementary pupils in the program attend more days afterwards. The idea is sound and the reported numbers are encouraging, but they come from the company’s own tracking rather than an independent controlled trial.
Here is why clean clothes affect attendance, how the program works, what results have been published over the years, and what a school thinking about something similar should consider.
Why laundry is an attendance problem
Chronic absenteeism, usually defined as missing at least 10 percent of school days, is one of the strongest early warning signs that a student may fall behind or drop out. Causes range from illness and transport to housing instability, and one of the least visible is clothing.
Missed days add up quickly. A child who is absent two days a month loses nearly a month of teaching over a school year, and in the early grades that can mean missing the lessons where reading and basic maths are built. Gaps like these are hard to close later, which is why schools pay so much attention to attendance in elementary years.
Families without a washing machine at home may rely on laundromats that cost money and time. Children who have only a few outfits, or who are embarrassed about wearing the same dirty clothes, may simply stay home rather than face teasing. Whirlpool says teachers it surveyed reported that around one in five students struggle with access to clean clothes, and the company also cites research suggesting that students who miss a lot of school are far more likely to drop out. Those are survey and advocacy figures, but they match what many teachers describe.
How Care Counts works
A participating school receives a washer and dryer, plus supplies. A staff member, often a teacher or counsellor, identifies students who might benefit and quietly handles their laundry, or arranges for them to use the machines. The goal is to remove the problem without drawing attention to the child.
The company has worked with Teach For America to find schools and with developmental psychologist Dr Richard Rende, who helps analyse anonymised data on laundry loads, attendance and grades. Schools serving low-income families can apply through the Care Counts page.
A washer and dryer pair installed for the Care Counts program, which places machines inside schools with high absenteeism. Image: Whirlpool
Reported results, year by year
Whirlpool’s figures from the 2018–2019 school year, when the program was entering its fifth year and focused on high-risk elementary pupils, said that:
- about three in four high-risk elementary participants missed less school;
- those pupils attended roughly one extra day per month, projected to about 11 extra days a year;
- more than two thirds of them saw their grades improve during the program.
At that point the company said it had reached more than 38,000 students in 82 schools across 18 US cities, and it planned to focus expansion on Title I elementary schools, which receive federal funding because they serve many low-income families. It also partnered with CSC ServiceWorks for installation and maintenance.
The program has grown since. A 2022 update listed 144 schools in 37 states and reported that nearly 70 percent of high-risk elementary students improved their attendance. By October 2024 it was in 164 schools across 41 states, with more than 50,000 students served since 2015, and about 87 percent of high-risk elementary pupils showed better attendance, an average of 13 more days over a school year. Whirlpool now says it aims to reach all 50 states and double the number of schools by 2028.
How to read these numbers
The trend is consistent, which is encouraging. Still, a few cautions apply.
Who measured it. The data are collected and reported by the company that runs the program. That does not make them wrong, but independent evaluation would carry more weight.
No control group. The published results compare students before and during the program. Students selected because their attendance was unusually poor tend to improve somewhat anyway, a statistical effect called regression to the mean. Without a comparison group, it is hard to know how much of the gain is due to laundry.
Many things change at once. A student who gets laundry help often also gets more attention from a caring adult. Rende has called the program “instrumental in lowering absenteeism for at-risk students,” and that personal attention may be part of why.
None of this undermines the core idea. It simply means the program is best seen as a promising, practical intervention rather than a proven cure.
Lessons for other schools and communities
Many schools across the US, the UK and elsewhere have installed machines on their own, sometimes funded by parent associations or local businesses. The ones that work tend to share a few features:
- Discretion. Students should not have to ask in front of classmates; a trusted staff member handles it.
- Someone responsible. Machines need detergent, maintenance and a person who actually does the loads.
- Spare clothes. A small closet of clean uniforms or outfits helps while laundry is in progress.
- Tracking. Simple attendance records before and after show whether the effort is helping.
Laundry will never fix every reason a child misses school. But it is a reminder that some barriers to education are ordinary, solvable problems, and that noticing them is often the hardest part.
Sources: Whirlpool: Care Counts program page; Whirlpool press release, October 2022; Whirlpool press release, October 2024.
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