The FBI served search warrants Wednesday at Los Angeles Unified School District headquarters and at the home of Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, federal officials confirmed, but declined to describe the underlying allegations. The FBI said the affidavits supporting the searches are under seal, limiting what officials would say about the investigation.
TV footage showed FBI agents in jackets and shirts outside Carvalho’s home in San Pedro, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) south of downtown Los Angeles. The FBI’s Los Angeles field office spokesperson, Rukelt Dalberis, confirmed that agents were at the properties to serve warrants but said he could not comment further because the affidavits are sealed.
The district said in a statement that it “is cooperating with the investigation and we do not have further information at this time.” The FBI also searched a third location near Miami, the AP reported, where Carvalho previously led the public schools.
In Miami, James Marshall, an FBI spokesman, told the AP that agents searched a residence in Southwest Ranches, in Broward County west of Fort Lauderdale, on Wednesday morning and “have since cleared the scene,” adding that no further information was available. A statement from the Miami-Dade school system said it was aware of the investigation involving Carvalho but had no comment at that time.
The FBI searches were reported as the second time in a week the Justice Department took action involving the LA school district. On Feb. 19, the Trump administration joined a lawsuit alleging that the district discriminates against white students under its decades-old desegregation policy.
Carvalho has previously received high praise for improvements during his time leading large urban districts. Over the past five years in Los Angeles, he was lauded for LAUSD’s academic performance, and in Florida the national superintendents association named him Superintendent of the Year in 2014, when he led Miami-Dade County Public Schools.
At the same time, both districts drew scrutiny during his leadership. In Los Angeles, the AP reported, Carvalho promoted an education technology company that developed an AI chatbot named “Ed” for the district; after the district paid the company $3 million and AllHere later collapsed into bankruptcy, the district dropped its dealings with the firm. The AP said founder Joanna Smith-Griffin was later charged with securities and wire fraud, along with identity theft, and that Carvalho denied personal involvement in the AllHere selection process, according to the Los Angeles Times.
In Florida, Carvalho also faced questions tied to a nonprofit he founded soliciting a $1.57 million donation from an online education company the district was planning to use but later dropped. The district’s inspector general found the donation did not violate state or district ethics policies but said it created the “ appearance of impropriety ” and should be returned, and the AP reported that the nonprofit instead distributed the money to Miami-Dade teachers in $100 gift cards.
Carvalho, who was Portugal-born, received a Spanish knighthood in 2021 for expanding Spanish-language programs in Miami-Dade County schools. After taking the job in California, the AP reported, he became a harsh critic of the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration crackdown, urging immigration authorities not to conduct enforcement activity within a two-block radius of schools when students returned to classes in the fall. In a news conference last year, Carvalho said, “I would be the biggest hypocrite in the world, regardless of my position today, if today I did not fight for those who find themselves in the same predicament I faced over 40 years ago when I arrived in this country at the age of 17 as an undocumented immigrant.”
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass’s office said it had no information about the search, noting that the public school system operates independently of city government.