This article deals with two problems: the timing of exits from the teaching profession and the reasons for these exits. Approximately 67 % of exiting female teachers leave the work force altogether. The presence of a newborn child is the single most important determinant of exits for females. The paper discusses why studies of quit behavior that simply include a person's total number of children may fail to capture the true importance of fertility behavior on a female's quit decision. It is also examined in this paper the return rates of departing teachers and compares the exit behavior of teachers to that of nonteachers.