Los Angeles public schools superintendent Alberto Carvalho resigned effective Sunday, June 21, 2026, after he was placed on paid leave during a federal investigation and after an FBI search of his home and the Los Angeles Unified School District headquarters. The district serves more than 500,000 students, and the people at the bottom of that machine are the ones left to absorb the fallout while the apparatus at the top scrambles to manage the damage.
Carvalho’s resignation came four months after the Board of Education voted unanimously to place him on leave, two days after the FBI served search warrants. The board said it had received his resignation letter and that Andrés Chait, who has been acting superintendent, will remain in that role until a permanent decision is made.
Who Has the Power
In his resignation letter, addressed to “students, families, teachers, staff, and community,” Carvalho said he wanted schools to remain focused on students and learning “without distraction” and cited what he called “historic progress” during his tenure. He wrote, “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.”
The Board of Education responded with its own language of stability and continuity, saying, “The Board remains steadfast in its commitment to ensuring stability, continuity, and continued progress through strong leadership. 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.”
Authorities have not provided details of the investigation involving the district. They have not accused Carvalho of any crimes. LA Unified said it was cooperating with investigators and had no further information.
What the Investigation Circles Around
The investigation appears to relate to a contract the district had with an education technology company whose leader was later indicted for fraud. The company, AllHere, had a contract with the district to create an AI chatbot. In 2024, Carvalho heavily touted a deal with AllHere for an AI chatbot named “Ed” designed to help students. About three months after unveiling the technology and paying the company $3 million, the district dropped its dealings with AllHere, which later collapsed into bankruptcy. Months later, founder Joanna Smith-Griffin was charged with securities and wire fraud, along with identity theft.
That is the shape of the hierarchy on display: a public school system serving more than 500,000 students, a superintendent with a $440,000 annual salary, a board issuing statements about trust and leadership, and a private technology company that took $3 million before the arrangement fell apart. The people who rely on the schools do not get to set the terms of these deals; they get the consequences.
Carvalho became superintendent of LA schools in 2022 on a four-year contract with an annual salary of $440,000. He began a new four-year contract earlier in February, just weeks before the raid, for the same salary, according to school board meeting documents.
The Career, the Contracts, the Scrutiny
Before becoming the Los Angeles superintendent in 2022, Carvalho spent his entire education career in Miami-Dade County Public Schools, where he drew national praise for improving graduation rates and academic achievement among Black and Hispanic students. While advocating for Miami’s immigrant students, he spoke openly about his own struggles as a young recent arrival from Portugal working in restaurants and construction while homeless at times. In Miami, Carvalho began his education career as a high school physics teacher in the 1980s and climbed the administrative ranks. He led the district for nearly 14 years.
In 2020, a nonprofit he founded to support Miami schools drew scrutiny after it solicited a $1.57 million donation from an online education company doing business with the district. The district’s inspector general later determined the donation didn’t violate state or district ethics policies but did create the “appearance of impropriety” and should be returned, according to The Miami Herald. Instead of returning the funds, the foundation distributed the money to Miami-Dade teachers in the form of $100 gift cards.
In February, the FBI also searched a third location near Miami. The Miami Herald reported the Florida property belonged to Debra Kerr, who previously worked with AllHere.
Holland & Knight, the law firm representing Carvalho, previously said, “Mr. Carvalho respects the rule of law and the investigative process and has always acted in the best interests of students and within the bounds of the law. While the government’s investigation remains ongoing, no evidence has been presented by prosecutors supporting any allegation that Mr. Carvalho violated federal law.” Carvalho denied wrongdoing earlier this year and had asked to be reinstated as head of the nation’s second-largest district.
The district’s public language is all about continuity, trust, and leadership. The material facts are simpler: an FBI search, a paid leave, a resignation, a contract with a collapsed company, and a school system so large that every decision at the top lands on hundreds of thousands of students and the workers who keep the place running.