Snarled in an enduring FBI probe over an embattled AI chatbot venture, Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho resigned his position over the weekend.
Read more Clive Davis, music industry starmaker, has died at 94
The LAUSD Board of Education acknowledged receipt of Carvalho’s resignation letter late Sunday night. “The board remains steadfast in its commitment to ensuring stability, continuity, and continued progress through strong leadership,” the board said.
The nation’s second-largest school district was already navigating challenging times, fending off a mammoth strike, potential budget cuts and concerns among families about student safety amid federal immigration enforcement.
“Our focus remains unchanged: providing every student with a high-quality education, supporting our dedicated workforce, and maintaining the trust of the communities we serve.”
“It has been a great honor to serve you,” Carvalho wrote in a letter sent to the board Sunday night. `’Over the past four years, together, we have made historic progress — gains that belong to our students, our educators, staff and our communities.”
“Placing students first has always guided my work. Because I believe our schools must remain focused on students and learning without distraction, I am resigning as superintendent of LAUSD effective today, June 21, 2026.”
Andrés Chait will remain acting superintendent until a permanent decision is made, the board said. In April, the board approved a six-figure salary for Chait while Carvalho was on paid leave. Sunday’s resignation resolved the issue of paying two school chiefs concurrently.
“As acting superintendent, my top priority is to keep Los Angeles Unified steady and focused on our core mission: educating, supporting and caring for the students of Los Angeles,” Chait said earlier this year. “Our schools will remain places of safety, consistency and opportunity. Teaching and learning will continue uninterrupted, and our plans and priorities will move forward.”
The leadership change comes as LAUSD, which serves more than 540,000 students, faced deep scrutiny amid a high-profile probe of its former leader. FBI agents raided Carvalho’s homes in San Pedro and Florida in February as well as the district office, in connection with a failed AI chatbot venture.
Two days later, the Board of Education voted to place Carvalho on paid administrative leave.
As recently as March, Carvalho maintained his innocence and urged the board to put him back to work.
Scoffing at the high-profile FBI investigation, Carvalho denied any wrongdoing Tuesday in a statement released by his attorneys on March 10.
Two weeks after the FBI raids, Carvalho’s statement urged officials to put him back to work in a statement released through his legal team.
“Mr. Carvalho remains confident that the evidence will ultimately demonstrate that he acted appropriately and in the best interests of students,” a spokesperson for Carvalho said in an emailed statement Tuesday. “We hope the school board reinstates him promptly to his position as superintendent.”
Read more Mexico, Italy and others see up to two more months of heat stress than in the 1970s, study says
Carvalho and his wife, Maria Florio Borgia Carvalho, “opened their door on the early morning of Feb. 25, to the sight of agents with long rifles drawn,” sources familiar with the investigation told The Los Angeles Times. They were placed in handcuffs and put in the back of a car while FBI agents searched their home and took items such as computers, cell phones and some paper documents, according to the newspaper.
Carvalho has been superintendent of the LAUSD since February 2022. He was reappointed to the post in September 2025. He previously served as superintendent of Miami-Dade County Public Schools in Florida for 14 years.
Investigators probed Carvalho’s involvement in the district’s past contract with AllHere, the now-defunct education technology startup behind LAUSD’s AI chatbot initiative. Federal authorities have not confirmed that connection.
LAUSD entered into a multiyear contract valued at roughly $6 million with the Boston-based company in 2023. The chatbot, known as “Ed,” was later taken offline after AllHere collapsed financially in June 2024. Later that year, federal prosecutors in New York charged the company’s former CEO Joanna Smith-Griffin, with securities fraud and related offenses tied to investor deception. Those charges were not specifically linked to LAUSD’s contract.
Public records link the Florida property searched by agents to Debra Kerr, an education technology salesperson whose clients included AllHere. Neither the FBI nor law enforcement sources have identified Kerr as a target of the investigation.
The education news outlet 74 previously reported that Kerr claimed in bankruptcy proceedings that AllHere owed her approximately $630,000 in unpaid commissions related to the LAUSD contract. The outlet also reported that her son, Richard Kerr, a former AllHere account executive, said he helped pitch the company to Los Angeles school leaders.
LAUSD has previously said it was not aware of any financial irregularities at the company and that it had not received any requests from federal authorities related to the matter. Carvalho has denied personal involvement in the selection of AllHere.
Carvalho’s contract was renewed last year; he earned $440,000 annually. District officials had pointed to improvements in attendance and gains in Advanced Placement participation during his tenure.
In 2020, while Carvalho was still in Miami, the Miami-Dade school system’s inspector general conducted an investigation into a $1.57 million donation Carvalho solicited from the online education company K12.
The donation was made to the Foundation for New Education Initiatives, a nonprofit organization Carvalho founded to improve learning opportunities for students from lower-income families. The investigation ultimately found no wrongdoing, but the inspector general recommended that the money be returned.
Chait will continue at the helm as the district weighs its options for a permanent replacement. He is considered a stabilizing choice: a pragmatic administrator with nearly three decades inside LAUSD known for steady management and communication.
Chait began his career in LAUSD classrooms teaching kindergarten before becoming a principal and later superintendent of the district’s then-Local District Northeast, one of the regional divisions that oversaw school communities across Northeast Los Angeles and parts of the San Fernando Valley.
Most recently, he served as chief of school operations, overseeing the operational systems that keep the district’s campuses running, including transportation, facilities, safety and nutrition programs. In that role, he also helped coordinate district responses during crises ranging from the Palisades and Eaton fires to heightened immigration enforcement that affected school communities.
Read more Ground beef to drive up Fourth of July grilling costs
This is a developing story; watch for updates
City News service contributed to this report