Addressing a serious, long-term educational problem in Brazil, this study aimed at identifying teachers' opinions about students' failure at school and the factors related to such failure in order to understand what such opinions mean in terms of teachers' perceptions of their role. Subjects were 451 public school elementary school teachers from six counties in the State of Espirito Santo. The methodology employed was qualitative-phenomenological. After having been shown the statistics about the conditions of educational access, promotion, drop-out and faculty qualification, teachers gave their opinions and perceptions about school failure and its determinants. The data were subjected to inductive analysis; emerging issues were classified into themes and then into broad categories. Results revealed that teachers placed greater emphasis on the economical and social-psychological conditions of the child and the family as the main determinants of school failure. They excluded themselves from responsibility for school failure and displaced responsibility to the child, the family, and the central administration. (Author/RH)