Granite State Home Educators (GSHE) has spent the last twelve years building and maintaining our Resource Directory — now containing over 600 educational providers and opportunities across New Hampshire. Every listing was personally researched, verified, and organized by me – most recently during GSHE’s full website relaunch in summer 2024.
This work is original, curated and fully protected by copyright. It is not scraped, syndicated, or crowdsourced. We make it freely available to registered members on GSHENH.org, but our terms of use are explicit: GSHE content may not be copied, scraped, or republished without permission. These safeguards exist to protect the integrity of the work and the families who rely on it.
EdOpt’s Public Admission of Copying GSHE Original Content Without Permission
In April 2025, EdOpt launched its provider map. The striking resemblance to GSHE’s directory prompted immediate questions. Then, in a July 9, 2025 interview on Manch Talk, hosted by Carla Gericke, EdOpt’s president Jody Underwood attempted to defend her actions:
“It was a huge project, but we simply scraped the state website for the public, private and charter and Learn Everywhere information, and then we scraped the Granite State Home Educators’ website for all the homeschool stuff.”
Underwood, Jody. Interview by Carla Gericke. Explore Your Education Options in the Free State of New Hampshire. Manch Talk, 9 July 2025. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBYSRhOabeU
Our suspicions were now publicly confirmed – it was a direct admission that EdOpt harvested GSHE content without permission. Adding to our concern, the designer of EdOpt’s website was given access to the GSHENH.org site last year without my consent during our relaunch.
Private Outreach and Refusal
After learning of the admission, I reached out to EdOpt privately. A mutual colleague also tried to mediate. Over more than a month I offered clear and reasonable remedies:
- Remove GSHE-derived data from their platform, or
- Provide proper attribution at the point of use (on the provider map itself) and issue a public apology
EdOpt rejected both proposals. Their response reduced the incident to a “misunderstanding,” despite their own admission that GSHE’s content had been used from the start. Their suggested “solution”—a vague blog post or a tiny logo link—falls far short of professional or ethical standards. Casual mentions in podcasts or conversations do not constitute attribution. We were also told that the Board of EdOpt (Jody Underwood, PhD, President/Chair; Kevin P. Tyson, Vice Chair; Rachel Goldsmith, Secretary; Louis Calitz, Treasurer; and Tom Luther, Director at Large) needed to consider our proposed resolution. Given EdOpt’s lack of action, their decision is clear.
Meanwhile, EdOpt continues to update and promote its map at public events, interviews, and fundraisers without ever acknowledging the source of the homeschool data.
Why This is a Serious Issue
This is not a minor oversight. It is a deliberate decision to:
- Take another organization’s curated work without permission,
- Present it as their own, and
- Refuse to correct the misrepresentation when asked.
- And the theft of copyrighted intellectual property without acknowledgement undermines all that true education should stress: Honesty. Integrity. Research. Scholarship.
In a small state like New Hampshire, families and advocates depend on trustworthy resources. Respect, transparency, and accountability are not optional—they are foundational. GSHE has always credited others when their contributions informed our work; we expect the same in return.
EdOpt’s refusal to meet even the most basic standard of attribution erodes its credibility. If an organization cannot be transparent about where its resources originated, families and partners have every reason to question their integrity.
Public Clarity
Because private attempts at resolution have been refused, I am sharing the facts publicly. They are not in dispute:
- EdOpt’s president admitted on record that they scraped GSHE’s website to build their provider map.
- GSHE offered multiple avenues for resolution — removal or proper attribution with a public acknowledgment.
- EdOpt declined all of them.
The community deserves to know this. Trust is built on honesty. And when an organization chooses not to uphold that standard, it damages its own credibility.
EdOpt still has the chance to correct this by providing proper, visible attribution and acknowledgment, and issue a public apology. But until that happens, the record is clear: GSHE’s work was taken without permission, and EdOpt has refused to assume responsibility.
We hope EdOpt will choose the path of transparency and restore confidence within our shared community.
— Michelle Levell
Founder & Director, Granite State Home Educators
