What to know about the LA superintendent whose home was searched by FBI

Los Angeles schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, who has developed a reputation for improving academics and graduation rates while leading two major U.S. districts, had his home searched Wednesday by the FBI as part of a federal investigation.

Agents served search warrants at the home as well as the headquarters of the Los Angeles Unified School District and a location near Miami, where Carvalho was superintendent previously.

Authorities have not given details on what they are investigating.

Here's what to know about Carvalho:

A challenging start in the country

Carvalho has described his background in numerous news conferences and interviews over the years.

He was born in Portugal and spent his childhood living in poverty. He came to the U.S. more than four decades ago at age 17 and did not have legal status for a time.

Carvalho lived in New York City and then Miami. His first job in the U.S. was as a dishwasher, and he later worked as a day laborer.

After graduating with a biology degree in 1990 from Barry University, a small Catholic school near Miami, he taught science in Miami-Dade County.

“My world changed when I became a teacher,” Carvalho said in 2021. “I still feel this journey is a fairytale.”

He quickly moved up the administrative ranks in Miami, becoming a principal, district spokesperson, assistant superintendent and finally superintendent in 2008.

Many awards and accolades

During his 14-year tenure leading Miami-Dade County Public Schools, Carvalho was recognized for improving graduation rates and academic performance, especially among Black and Hispanic students.

In 2014 he was named Superintendent of the Year by the national superintendents association, and in 2021 he was knighted by Spain for his work expanding Spanish-language school programs.

That same year the Los Angeles Board of Education unanimously voted to make him superintendent, at a time when the district was both flush with funding from state and federal COVID-19 relief and also struggling with the impacts of the pandemic, including learning losses and declining enrollment.

Over the past five years, Carvalho has been lauded for the district’s improvements in academic performance.

A Trump immigration policy critic

Carvalho has regularly opposed the administration’s aggressive crackdown in and around Los Angeles, referencing his own history as an immigrant living in the U.S. illegally.

The district, the nation’s second-largest, is made up of about 500,000 students, around 30,000 of them immigrants and some of them also without legal status.

Just before students returned to school last August, he urged immigration authorities not to conduct enforcement activity within a two-block radius of schools.

“We are appealing to the better senses of those who have the power to eliminate trauma from the streets of our community,” Carvalho said.

He announced several measures meant to protect students and families, including changing bus routes to accommodate more students. The district also said it would distribute family preparedness packets that include know-your-rights information, emergency contact updates and tips on designating a backup caregiver in case a parent is detained.

Some scrutiny and criticism over the years

Back in Florida, Carvalho faced questions in 2020 after a nonprofit he founded solicited a $1.57 million donation from an online education company the district planned to use but later dropped.

The district’s inspector general concluded that the donation did not violate state or district ethics policies but said it created an “ appearance of impropriety ” and should be returned. The money went instead to Miami-Dade teachers in the form of $100 gift cards.

Years before that Carvalho came under criticism for exchanging explicit emails with a former Miami Herald reporter. He denied having an affair but conceded that the exchanges were inappropriate.

In 2024, in Los Angeles, he touted the development of an AI chatbot named “Ed” for district students by the AI company AllHere. Three months after unveiling the technology and paying the company $3 million, the district dropped its dealings with AllHere as it collapsed.

Carvalho denied personal involvement in the selection of AllHere, according to the Los Angeles Times. After its founder was charged with securities and wire fraud and identity theft, he said he would appoint a task force to examine what went wrong with the project. There have been no announcements of a task force being appointed.

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Associated Press writers Bianca Vázquez Toness and Christopher Weber contributed.