This study evaluates the effectivity of school management according to the perceptions of Turkish school principals of Syrian refugee students through the lenses of complex adaptive leadership, which was conceptualized from complexity theory and complex adaptive leadership. This was qualitative research designed as a phenomenological study. The participants of the study were identified via a snowball sampling strategy. Nineteen school principals working at public schools in Turkey during the summer term of 2016-2017 and the fall term of 2017-2018 were selected as the participants. Data were collected using the interview technique and descriptive analysis was employed. The results showed that school principals commented on resource management, risk, decision making, and planning and control when functioning as managerial leaders. Secondly, they touched on network dynamics, change and innovation, and safe schools in terms of their adaptive leadership skills. Lastly, they pointed out interaction, win-win interdependency, and ethical values of enabling leadership. Overall, it was found that the structure of the Turkish Ministry of National Education is strictly centralized, and complex adaptive leadership does not function properly in this context. However, school principals do make ceaseless efforts to meet the educational and humanitarian needs of Syrian refugees.