This study aimed to address the growing problem in education, the need to retain highly qualified teachers in the classroom. Beyond the task of just filling positions, experienced teachers bring unique skills to the school, making them better instructors (Melnick & Meister, 2008). This is a challenging topic; roughly 29% of teachers who left the classroom said they were "dissatisfied" with their job as the main reason they left (Ingersoll & Smith, 2003). There has been a plethora of data concerning why teachers enter the profession. Whether it is the appeal of summer breaks or the chance to impact students' lives, there are clear reasons teachers offer to join the profession (Hughes, 2014). This study aimed to determine why teachers stay in the classroom and focused on ascertaining their specific reasons for staying in the classroom by conducting stay interviews. Literature shows that teacher retention helps with student performance, but teacher retention helps in other ways. According to literature, it costs a school district between $20,000 and $30,000 per teacher that must be replaced (Hillard, 2022). This equates to roughly $8.5 billion spent annually in the United States on recruiting, training, and replacing teachers (Hillard, 2022). In turn, retention would help ease the schools' already tight budgets. This research looked at five schools within the same charter school district and interviewed four returning teachers at each site. The returning teachers had a variety of teaching experiences both at the school site and in the education world in general. The participants were interviewed face-to-face by a pre-selected group of questions. The data was analyzed to find commonalities regarding why teachers stayed at the district and in the education field. The interviews revealed several commonalities that keep teachers returning to the classroom year after year. Similarly, the interviews provided additional data for administrators when they work to keep teachers in their respective classrooms. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]