The Department of Household Economics was organized in 1912 at the First District Normal School by President John R. Kirk. The main purpose of the Home Economics Division/Department from its early years until the 1970s was to teach and train students to become high school home economics teachers. The department/division also offered a homemaking major. In the 1970s, the division expanded its curriculum and promoted the idea that there were various outside-the-home employment opportunities available to home economics graduates. The division underwent a major self-study in the late 1970s in their endeavor to become accredited by the American Home Economics Association (AHEA). The AHEA granted accreditation to the division in October 1982.

In 1985, after Missouri Governor John Ashcroft signed House Bill 196 naming Northeast Missouri State University (NMSU) as the statewide institution of liberal arts and sciences, questions arose as to the Home Economics Division’s relevance at the university. In an attempt to prove its legitimacy, the division made drastic changes to its curriculum and changed its name to the “Family Sciences Division” in 1986. Despite the Family Sciences Division’s persistent efforts, on December 15, 1991, the Missouri Coordinating Board for Higher Education recommended that it be closed at NMSU. NMSU followed through with this recommendation and began to phase out Family Sciences in 1992.