AbstractIn Georgia schools, social workers gradually are being replaced by attendance workers. Some educators claim that noncertified attendance workers perform similar functions at lower cost than certified social workers. A survey compared the two groups on 10 service areas and revealed that master's-level, certified school social workers attach significantly greater importance to most service areas and more frequently perform tasks in most of those areas than do noncertified attendance workers. Furthermore, most attendance workers' salaries equal those of school social workers, so in most cases no economic advantage exists in hiring attendance workers instead of social workers. Various factors concerning contributions to academic excellence are presented.