Education as a social context within the public sphere requires evaluation processes that identify the quality of care offered. In 2009 the Brazilian Ministry of Education in partnership with other institutions published 'Quality Indicators in Early Childhood Education', a document characterized as 'an instrument to achieve quality in child education institutions, through a participatory process open to the entire community'. This process triggered a broad national debate on the quality standards sought for early childhood education. Mobilized by this document, in 2013 the municipality of São Paulo started a participatory institutional self-assessment process focused on the educational context. In this article, we present the trajectory through which this public policy was constructed and implemented in the municipality of São Paulo, between 2013 and 2016. The objective is to contribute to the improvement of children's education in São Paulo based on the self-assessment of nine standards and dimensions of quality.