In São Paulo State, in 2006, more than 500 Full Time Schools were opened, in the fundamental education of the public state net, with the purpose to broaden the students' learning possibilities. The students' permanence period in school was extended and the basic curriculum was enhanced with curriculum workshops. This article analyses the relationship between the objectives proposed by the educational policies and the specific experience data, and its goal is to understand the advances, challenges and limits of this initiative, which is meant to achieve a better quality public education. A case study data was analyzed according to Teixeira's (1977), Gramsci's (2004), Manacorda's (1990), Paro's (1988) and Cavaliere's and Coelho's (2002) references. Among the main conclusions, we can state that the students' period length cannot be only a time enlargement, but a period to qualify the compulsory activities and the students' free choice activities.
Integral Time School; Integral Education; Public school; Public policies
