The Los Angeles Board of Education is scheduled to meet behind closed doors Thursday afternoon, a day after federal authorities raided the home and office of Superintendent Alberto Carvalho in what appears to be a probe related to AllHere, a now-defunct company that developed a failed AI chatbot for the district.
At noon on Wednesday, hours after the raids began, school district officials posted a new closed-session meeting of the Board of Education, with the only listed item for the meeting as “Public Employment: General Superintendent of Schools.” Also on Wednesday, LAUSD officials said in a statement that they had been informed of the law enforcement activity and were cooperating with the investigation. The school district provided no additional details.
Federal authorities also have not provided details about the investigation. But one source with knowledge of the matter told The Times that the probe revolved around AllHere, whose founder was charged with fraud in 2024.
Along with Carvalho’s San Pedro home and office at LAUSD headquarters in downtown Los Angeles, the FBI provided an address in Florida that was searched Wednesday morning. Public records show that property is linked to an individual who worked with AllHere.
Law enforcement sources, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, told The Times that the federal investigation specifically involves Carvalho, who has served as LAUSD superintendent since February 2022.
Carvalho has not made any public statements and could not be reached for comment.
The investigation is a major crisis for the LAUSD, which under Carvalho’s leadership has been trying to regroup after learning disruptions during the pandemic. More recently the district has responded forcefully to immigration raids this year under the Trump administration that have destabilized a school system with large numbers of immigrant families.
Since his arrival in Los Angeles, Carvalho has moved aggressively to improve attendance — after a pandemic-related explosion in chronic absenteeism. He also confronted issues ranging from labor to crime on campuses. After several years of post-pandemic academic help, Los Angeles students achieved a what he described as a “new high watermark,” with math and English scores that rose last year across all tested grades for the second straight year, surpassing results from before the 2020 campus closures, Carvalho announced in July. The gains are generally considered solid evidence that instruction is moving in the right direction.
He garnered national attention for his activism against the immigration raids that affected students last summer, emerging as a foe of the Trump administration crackdown.
In September, the Los Angeles Board of Education unanimously voted to retain Carvalho for another four years, at an annual salary of $440,000.
But the district’s experience with the AI firm was a notable setback during his tenure.
Carvalho had green-lighted an artificial-intelligence chatbot, named Ed and represented by a smiling sun, for LAUSD students, families and teachers that quietly was disconnected three months after its release in 2024. It was supposed to respond to questions from students and parents in an accurate, helpful and private manner. Carvalho touted “Ed” as an AI-enhanced student adviser that was to be a component of a unique Individual Acceleration Plan, or IAP, for every student. But the company behind it collapsed even before the technology was fully deployed.
On Wednesday, FBI agents searched a residence in Southwest Ranches, a town in Broward County, Fla., in connection with the investigation, according to an FBI spokesman in Miami.
According to public record databases, Debra Kerr, a salesperson whose clients included AllHere, is listed as the owner of the Florida home. Neither the FBI nor confidential sources identified Kerr on Wednesday as a target of the investigation. Attempts to contact Kerr were unsuccessful.
Kerr, a successful consultant to companies seeking work with school districts, has long ties to Carvalho, going back to his time as superintendent in Miami. She worked as a consultant to AllHere and has claimed in court documents that the company owes her $630,000.
The 74, an education news site, previously reported that Kerr said AllHere never paid her a commission owed for work closing the AllHere deal in Los Angeles. The outlet also reported that Kerr’s son, Richard, is a former AllHere account executive who told The 74 he was involved in pitching the company to L.A. school leaders.
An FBI spokesperson declined to share more information, citing the fact that the affidavits have been sealed by the court. Law enforcement sources familiar with the probe said that the focus was Carvalho as opposed to LAUSD, and that it would fall under the broad category of financial issues.
Joanna Smith-Griffin, the founder and former chief executive of AllHere, was arrested in 2024 and charged with securities fraud, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. She pleaded not guilty that year and was released on a $350,000 bond. Her lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
