The Los Angeles Unified School District was in turmoil on Thursday as school board members considered the fate of its superintendent, Alberto Carvalho, a day after the F.B.I. raided his home and his office at district headquarters.
The board of education was scheduled to meet late Thursday afternoon in an emergency closed session.
Mr. Carvalho, who has led the district, the nation’s second largest, since 2022, has not responded to requests for comment. Federal agents seized his work phone and other devices during the raid, according to a district official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss legal matters.
It was unclear whether Mr. Carvalho would take a leave of absence pending the outcome of the investigation, but current and former district officials said that prospect was likely to be discussed. The district said in a statement that it was aware of the federal raids in Los Angeles on Wednesday and that it was cooperating with the authorities.
The F.B.I. on Wednesday also searched the Florida home of Debra Kerr, a longtime friend and business associate of Mr. Carvalho’s who specializes in marketing education technology and linking vendors to school districts. The two knew each other in South Florida, where he had served as superintendent of Miami-Dade County Public Schools for more than 13 years before coming to Los Angeles.
Ms. Kerr had consulted for a tech start-up, AllHere, that was awarded a multimillion-dollar contract in Los Angeles more than two years ago to develop an A.I. chatbot. The company collapsed months later, and its chief executive was charged with fraud. The case has not been resolved.
At least one other client of Ms. Kerr’s, a training platform for social-emotional learning called RethinkEd, has been hired by Los Angeles Unified during Mr. Carvalho’s tenure there.
The exact target of the investigation remains unclear because the federal affidavits in the case remain sealed. But AllHere has been under federal investigation since 2024, and the inquiry appears to have widened to include the connections between Mr. Carvalho and Ms. Kerr, who helped to land the $6 million contract with Los Angeles Unified, the company’s largest client.
Mr. Carvalho was nationally known in education as a charismatic, tech-friendly leader when he was tapped to lead Los Angeles schools.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, Mr. Carvalho had portrayed himself as an expert on remote and hybrid learning using technology. In frequent interviews with the news media, he spoke of pushing Miami teachers to conduct more live lessons over video, and of the importance of parents getting involved with their children’s learning from home.
He has often been a foil to the Trump administration, advocating the rights of immigrant students and speaking about his time as an undocumented immigrant from Portugal, living in poverty, before he said he became a citizen.
In 2024, Mr. Carvalho introduced the chatbot, Ed, in glowing terms, from the stage at a glimmering tech conference. Ed, which was developed by AllHere and looked like a smiling cartoon sun, was supposed to “democratize education” and become an “ever-present companion” to students needing academic and mental health support, Mr. Carvalho said.
Several months later, the technology failed and AllHere went bankrupt.
When it became clear that AllHere was under legal scrutiny, Los Angeles Unified hired an outside law firm to conduct an internal review of Mr. Carvalho’s dealings with the company and found no criminal wrongdoing on his part, according to the district official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss legal matters.
The federal case raises questions not just about financial decisions within the school system, but also about the wisdom of schools rushing to embrace A.I.
The idea for the Ed chatbot was “unsophisticated from the outset,” said Benjamin Riley, an education policy expert who has become a leading skeptic of A.I. usage in schools. He pointed out that major A.I. companies provide many tools for free to educators.
“Why do you need your own custom-built chatbot when billions are already flowing into the A.I. companies we all now know by name?” Mr. Riley asked.
While Mr. Carvalho rose to become one of the nation’s most prominent K-12 education leaders, his career has also had moments of scandal.
In 2008, leaked emails suggested that he had an inappropriate relationship with a reporter covering the Miami schools. Mr. Carvalho said he did not have an affair with the reporter, but that the emails he wrote were inappropriate, according to The Miami Herald.
In 2018, he accepted what some consider to be the most prestigious position in public education, leading the New York City school system. He then abruptly backed out of the job on live television.
Kitty Bennett contributed research.
Dana Goldstein covers education and families for The Times.
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