Alberto Carvalho’s San Pedro Home and LAUSD Headquarters Searched by FBI
Federal agents searched the San Pedro home of Superintendent alberto carvalho and Los Angeles Unified School District headquarters on Wednesday morning, the Department of Justice confirmed. The DOJ said it had a court-authorized warrant but declined to provide additional details, and the FBI said the underlying affidavit remained under court-ordered seal.
DOJ and FBI actions
Federal agents carried out searches at Los Angeles Unified School District headquarters and at the San Pedro residence of Superintendent Alberto Carvalho on Wednesday morning, the Department of Justice confirmed. The DOJ said it had a court-authorized warrant and declined to provide additional details. The FBI said the underlying affidavit remained under court-ordered seal.
District statement and cooperation
The district published a brief statement acknowledging awareness of what it described as "law enforcement activity" at its headquarters and at the superintendent's home. The statement added: "The district is cooperating with the investigation, and we do not have further information at this time. "
Neighbor reaction at 6 a. m.
Neighbors said they first noticed officers at Carvalho's home around 6 a. m. One neighbor identified only as John said an officer told him to stay in his home; he requested that his last name not be published out of fear of reprisal. At the district's downtown headquarters, multiple district staff members said they were unaware of the raids until they saw media gathered outside.
Miami-area search cleared
Separately, the local FBI in Miami searched a residence in Southwest Ranches, a town west of Ft. Lauderdale, and has since cleared the scene. James Marshall, a spokesperson from the FBI in Miami, did not provide additional information in an email. The quoted phrase that the scene was cleared described the search as "as part of this matter and have since cleared the scene. "
Unclear motive and potential ties
It remained unclear Wednesday afternoon what prompted the investigation or whether it was related in any way to past tensions between the district and the Trump administration or to matters from the superintendent's time before arriving in Los Angeles. The cause of the searches and any potential targets or charges were not disclosed.
Alberto Carvalho's tenure and controversies
Carvalho has been superintendent of LAUSD since 2022, and the board renewed his contract in 2025. Prior to coming to Los Angeles, Carvalho worked for the Miami-Dade County school district for decades: 30 years as a teacher and the last 14 years as the district's supervisor. Carvalho and the district’s elected board have expressed unanimous support for immigrant students, staff and families since President Donald Trump was elected to a second term, and the superintendent has spoken openly about his own journey as a former undocumented immigrant.
Carvalho's time at LAUSD has included gains in test scores and participation in classes. But it has also featured rocky moments, including the failed 2024 rollout of an AI chatbot called Ed, designed to be a "personal assistant" to students that would point them toward mental health resources and nudge students who were falling behind. Within three months of its debut, the company behind Ed, AllHere, furloughed the bulk of its staff and its CEO was later charged with fraud. The district defended the process it used to debut that chatbot, which cost $3 million.
The sequence of events Thursday remained limited to law enforcement confirmations and district cooperation; officials declined to provide additional specifics, and agents left some documents under seal. Neighbors, district staff and a Miami-area FBI office have all provided pieces of the picture, but the overall motives and scope of the inquiries remain unclear in the provided context.
Closing the day, the district reiterated cooperation with investigators and offered no further information "at this time. "
