LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho resigned on Sunday night, ending his tenure at the Los Angeles Unified School District while a federal investigation continues to hang over the nation’s second-largest school system. An LAUSD spokesperson said the district received his letter of resignation.
For readers following Carvalho’s case, this is the first definitive break in a story that had already moved from suspicion to formal action. The FBI served search warrants at his home and at LAUSD headquarters nearly four months before he stepped down, and the Board of Education had already voted unanimously on Feb. 27 to place him on leave pending the outcome of the probe.
Carvalho said it had been a great honor to serve the students, families, teachers, staff and community of LAUSD, and he wrote that over the past four years they had made historic progress. He did not directly explain why he was leaving. The district said Andrés Chait will remain acting superintendent until the position is permanently filled.
The resignation lands with the inquiry still unresolved and no charges filed against Carvalho. In March, he said he remained confident the evidence would show he acted appropriately and in the best interests of students. His lawyers also said he respected the rule of law, had always acted within its bounds and that no evidence had been presented supporting any allegation that he violated federal law.
That denial sits next to the facts that fueled the inquiry: the FBI searched his home and the district headquarters, and investigators also searched a third location near Miami. The Miami Herald reported that the Florida property belonged to Debra Kerr, who had previously worked with AllHere, the company behind a 2024 AI chatbot deal Carvalho promoted heavily. LAUSD paid AllHere $3 million before dropping its dealings with the company about three months after the technology was unveiled, and AllHere later collapsed into bankruptcy. Months later, Joanna Smith-Griffin was charged with securities and wire fraud, along with identity theft.
The Board of Education said it remained steadfast in its commitment to stability, continuity and continued progress through strong leadership. For now, that means LA Unified moves ahead under Chait, while Carvalho’s exit leaves one question untouched: what exactly the FBI is examining inside a district that had already put its superintendent on leave before he resigned.
