This case study aims to explore how the stated guidelines, regarding direct immersed newly arrived students and their subsequent education, are complied with in practice in a school in Sweden. To examine this relation between theory and practice, we have chosen a qualitative approach which consists of semi-structured interviews and participatory observations. The interviews with the school’s headmaster and SSL-teacher (Swedish as Second Language) intend to inform the analysis from an organizational perspective, while the interviews with two teachers as well as the observations of one newly arrived student intend to provide the empirical basis of the classroom perspective. Our results have been analyzed within the frames of Thomas and Collier’s (1997) Prism model which is grounded in their theories concerning language minority students’ education. The conclusion drawn based on this case study is that there is a discrepancy between the formulated guidelines and the studied educational practice. The headmaster and the SSL-teacher convey clear intentions regarding how the education for the newly arrived students should be organized. However, the teachers’ statements and our observations indicate that these guidelines are not complied with to the extent that is being sought. In order to optimize the education for newly arrived students, it is insufficient to merely create theoretical guidelines without ensuring that they are fully implemented in practice.