The objective of this text is to analyze how the expansion of mandatory enrollment in preschool is part of a rationale which places the child at the center of the discourses and guides the practices with young children. It carries out documentary analysis, from a critical theoretical basis, of offi cial documents produced and circulated by the United Nations Educational, Scientifi c and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) since the 1990s, with a focus on the narrative that supports the expansion of mandatory education. By questioning the meanings and intentions of the documents, we recognize that they are committed to drive the idea of the child as a future, whose care and education are concerns supported by economic interests, and thus induce the formulation of policies that indicate preschool as mandatory. In addition, we identifi ed that in the process of implementing Law No. 12796 (BRASIL, 2013) in Brazil, the strategies adopted bring implications for children that are opposed to the concepts defended by the area of early childhood education.