The FBI served search warrants Wednesday at the Los Angeles Unified School District’s headquarters and Superintendent Alberto Carvalho’s home as part of a federal investigation.
The nature of the investigation and what allegations were being examined was not immediately clear.
Rukelt Dalberis, a spokesperson for the FBI’s Los Angeles field office, confirmed that agents were at the properties to serve warrants but declined to comment further because affidavits laying out details for the basis for the searches were under seal. A third location in Florida was also searched.
The district is aware of the searches at the office and Carvalho’s home, it said in a statement.
“The District is cooperating with the investigation and we do not have further information at this time,” the statement said.
TV news footage showed agents in FBI shirts and jackets outside Carvalho’s modest home in the San Pedro neighborhood about 20 miles 32 kilometers south of downtown Los Angeles. There was no visible sign of agents outside the district headquarters as of mid-morning.
Carvalho has been the Los Angeles public schools superintendent since February 2022. Before that, he oversaw the Miami-Dade County school district, Florida’s largest, from 2008 to 2021, when he was credited with improving graduation rates and academic performance.
He’s been an outspoken advocate for immigrant students and critic of President Donald Trump’s administration’s forceful enforcement tactics. Last year, the Los Angeles district created “safe zones” around schools and hosted workshops on legal rights for immigrants.
“When children witness peers, parents, or other individuals detained, the image is not easily erased,” said Carvalho said in September. “These moments imprint on young minds, distracting them from academic lessons and replacing intellectual curiosity with worry.”
The sprawling LAUSD is the nation’s second largest, with more than 500,000 students and covering more than two dozen cities. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass’s office said it had no information about the search of the district’s headquarters and noted that the public school system operates independently of city government.
James Marshall, an FBI spokesman in Miami, told the AP that agents searched a residence in Southwest Ranches, which is in Broward County west of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Wednesday morning and “have since cleared the scene.” He said no further information was available.
Officials with the Miami-Dade school system did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment on whether the FBI or other federal agencies have contacted them regarding Carvalho.
Wednesday’s search is the second time in a week the U.S. Department of Justice has taken action against the school district. On Feb. 19, the Trump administration joined a lawsuit alleging that the district discriminates against white students under its decades-old desegregation policy.
