The Programa Aprendizagem na Idade Certa (PAIC) is an educational policy based on the collaboration regime between Ceará and its municipalities, which covers the 2nd, 5th and 9th grade of elementary school. In view of the recognized positive results of this policy, this study seeks to understand what factors conditioned the implementation of the PAIC and help to explain its results. The first factor considered is federalism, which guides the brazilian state organization. The focus analysis will be in two senses: first, how the implementation context took place in the light of Matland's ambiguity and conflict model (1995); second, whether this implementation has induced state capacities in municipalities, notably bureaucratic and financial capacity. In the first sense, the statutes that define the policy will be analyzed, along with 25 interviews that will be analyzed using the content analysis method (Bardin, 2011). In the second, different sources of data on technical and financial characteristics of the municipalities of Ceará will be analyzed, using descriptive statistics. The results of the research point to a policy with a high degree of ambiguity regarding it guiding norms, and different degrees of conflict at the local level, especially of the political-party type, in Fortaleza; and for the generation of state capacities in the municipalities of Ceará, both within the scope of the municipal secretariats, and in relation to the bureaucracy of schools.