cleaning floor with machine


To compete with custodian shortages, one Texas-based school district decided to adopt autonomous cleaning machines. The Katy Independent School District (KISD) invested $1 million in cleaning robots to manage high foot traffic needs across 17 of its 79 campuses. As a result, the district could maintain clean and healthy environments at the quality standards expected for its students and staff.

Facing a shortage of 100 janitorial staff members, KISD investigated solutions to allow cleaning operations to remain effective with less coverage throughout all 14 million square feet of infrastructure. Enter autonomous machines, a cost-effective solution that delivers quality carpet and floor care after hours. Each cleaning robot costs $30,000 per unit—roughly the same amount as one custodian's annual salary.

The new cleaning program was met with backlash as people fretted over the potential ramifications of handing cleaning jobs to machines instead of people. However, the district argued that the adoption of these tools supplements the irreplaceable work carried out by cleaning crews daily. In The Texas Gazette, the district reported daytime custodians handle tasks requiring human oversight, such as opening buildings, mealtime cleanup, spill removal, and additional seasonal cleaning tasks like high dusting and floor finishing. Although cleaning robots can handle aspects of these jobs, they alone cannot do the entire job.

KISD is not the first school district to employ autonomous cleaning machines to support custodial operations. In February 2026, Spokane Public Schools spent $1.08 million on 14 robot floor cleaners, dispersed at each middle and high school. Although a member of the janitorial staff shared in The Spokesman-Review at the onset of the program that the equipment had not necessarily improved the ease or efficiency of the job, he anticipated it would eventually improve operational efficacy.

Learn about other schools using autonomous floor cleaners to close school staffing gaps by clicking here.