Yes RR, you are correct. I am a little surprised that there seems to be such little hope for him to be declared eligible since he has another year to meet the qualifying standards. Either the stories are being exaggerated, or he has dug a very deep hole.
I am also a little amused that so many people think that an ACT/SAT tutor can turn things around. I have tutored dozens of students who are preparing for the exam, primarily for the Math portion of the test. When I first meet with a student, I always ask the same question: "What is 7 times 9?" You would be shocked at how many students I work with break out in a cold sweat and immediately start looking for a calculator. At that point, I tell the parent that we all are wasting our time on exam tutoring. I also say that I will work with the child. but I will have to go back to 3rd and 4th grade level math and work my way through Algebra II to get them ready for the exam. If they don't know basic multiplication facts, they probably are weak with fractions, percentages, basic Algebra, etc.
You might be thinking, "How can a student continue to be passed year after year without learning anything?' That's a fair question. As a former teacher and school administrator I can say that there are basically two answers to that question. First, some teachers are just incompetent and pass everybody. The more likely answer, however, is that many administrators will fire a teacher that fails more than 20-25% of their students. That averages out to about 5-7 students per class. Most teachers have at least that many students in their lower level classes who do absolutely nothing. Many of those will fail unless they have a great deal of natural ability. However, the rest of the students will probably pass if the teacher wants to stay employed. Yes, it is sad.