Anticipating the arrival of Southeast Asian refugee students for the 1975-76 school year, the Syracuse School District established, as part of the Special Needs Program, an English as a Second Language (ESL) program. The students were given intensive, half-day ESL instruction at a center and attended classes with their American peers at their home school for the remainder of the day. The students' families were from every extreme of Vietnamese and Cambodian society. The students were 5-17 years old. With extreme differences in educational backgrounds and needs, and with the wide age span, every possible ESL approach was used. Specific adjustments and emphases to help the students understand, participate in, and enjoy their strange new cultural and educational environment were made. In four months' time, the students had all progressed from being non-English speaking to understanding nearly everything said to them and to being able to make themselves understood in most situations. The survival English level was as measured by the Bilingual Syntax Measure. Their social adjustment at the center, and in their home schools, with the school district and with their peers, was found to be positive and generally happy. The ESL program, center concept, and individualization proved as successful as had been anticipated. (Author/JM)