In the United States, parents have been homeschooling their children since the colonial ages. Back then, homeschooling was a way of life, and parents provided education at home because there was no such thing as compulsory education or mandatory attendance of any kind. Homeschooling continued as a practice until Horace Mann, in 1850, helped Massachusetts establish a system of education and the compulsory education attendance law, which required all children to attend public school. As a result of compulsory education attendance laws, homeschooling began to decline as a practice, only to experience a rebirth during the late 1970s and the 1980s. The purpose of this study was to examine superintendents' perceptions to determine to what extent the lack of homeschooling legislation in New Jersey has affected their ability to make decisions for homeschoolers and homeschooling practices. This study also explored superintendents' perceptions about whether enacting homeschooling statutes would better guide homeschooling decisions that are made within New Jersey public schools and whether homeschooling statutes would better guide the development of board policies and procedures related to homeschooling. This study was quantitative in nature and utilized all of the methodologies that are common to survey research designs. As a result of this study, it was concluded that in general, superintendents in New Jersey believed that they have some responsibility toward homeschoolers and homeschooling families and that the level of responsibility is directly related to the availability of homeschooling legislation. This study also revealed that superintendents demonstrated that they would be willing to communicate with homeschooling families but that in order to do so effectively, steps would have to be taken to enable that process to take place. Finally, superintendents collectively agreed that they have the power to establish criteria for homeschooled students who are entering the public schools. However, there clearly needs to be discussion about what that belief is based upon since the literature illustrated that it is not based on the availability of homeschooling legislation nor locally developed board policy. [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.]