ALBANY — A lot changed for Ma Wai Lin and her family when they left a refugee camp in Thailand this May for a new life in America.

They had a new home in Albany, a new language to learn and a new school system to get used to. But one thing stayed the same: Lin's 17-year-old was skipping school.

"He skip school a lot in Thailand and also when he first came to America because he hang out with the wrong friend who also skip classes," said Lily Htoo, a home school coordinator in the Albany City School District who translated for Lin from her native Karen. "But then his teacher went to the house and recommend him to come to the summer school."

Summer school worked wonders on the teen, who started coming to school every day and actually looked forward to it. But it's not the kind of summer school you're thinking of. It's a summer program for students in Albany who are new to the English language and most likely new to America.

The school district launched the program for the first time last summer, and saw remarkable results. Compared to regular school, students were actually eager to come to school, where they could make friends with other newcomers like themselves and learn the language in a judgment-free zone. They also got a crash course in America, with field trips to a state park, baseball game and Statue of Liberty — and all before the regular school year kicked off in the fall.

Starting this fall, the district will launch its first year-round program for newcomers in hopes of transforming the way it delivers instruction to a rapidly growing immigrant and refugee population. The district now serves more than 1,300 immigrants and refugees, up 200 from last year this time and quadruple what it was five years ago.

"She think that in the newcomer program her son will learn English better and he cannot skip school because the class will be smaller," said Htoo, translating for Lin. "That's why she registering her son for the program."

About 80 students in grades 6-12 have signed up to participate in the program, which by law must be voluntary and include credit-bearing classes for students to take. The program will be based out of North Albany Academy, where the district had unused space, and is expected to grow to 175 students by the end of the 2017-18 school year.

Students are expected to spend two years in the program before transitioning back to their assigned school. In addition to intensive English-language instruction, the students will have two years instead of one to complete Regents-level courses.

"From a programmatic standpoint, this is a much more targeted, efficient way to deliver instruction for kids as they are coming into our country and city," said Thomas Giglio, director of ENL and Refugee Services for the district.

By law, the district has to educate any child who resides and enrolls in the district.

With 57 languages spoken in the district and needs that range from the learning-disabled to the gifted, teachers are required to differentiate their instruction for whomever ends up in the classroom. This can look as simple as including visuals in lesson plans for a deaf student or giving a student with a learning disability extra time to complete an assignment.

This task gets considerably more difficult when you add a language barrier, especially since students may not have even been literate in their native language. To determine what kind of services to provide these students, New York administers a test that classifies their English language skills into one of the following five categories: entering, emerging, transitioning, expanding or commanding.

Albany's newcomer program will target students in those first two categories, as well as students whose education may have been interrupted in their home country due to war, poverty, cultural customs or other circumstances.

The program will cost $398,700 to operate in the first year — about half of what it would have cost for the district to educate students under the old model, said district spokesman Ron Lesko.

The district hopes to eventually expand the program to students in grades 3-5, but is starting with older students since they are more at risk of missing school and dropping out.

"There is more opportunity for a student to grow and catch up when they're younger because there's more school in front of them," said Giglio. "Versus the kids who come to us when they're 15, 16, 17 years old — not only do they have to try to master the language but they have to master harder content, too."

Rachel Stead will serve as the program's new principal. She comes from the Shenendehowa school district, where she served five years as academic administrator for world languages, English as a new language, and grants. Before that, she worked as executive director of the Capital District Regional Bilingual Education Resource Network.

The job, Stead said, seemed tailor-made for her.

Pointing to similar programs in Rochester and Buffalo that have proven successful, she said: "It's so exciting to be a part of something from the ground up. I mean, in all of upstate New York, not many others can say they're doing something like this. This is a big deal."