we focused on what he could control (turning things in vs. getting As) and even then he was just terrible at doing it. He had such awful time management and felt like pulling C's and D's was good enough.
The good news, to give you some hope, is that he got a 3.8 last semester in high school. We rarely have to harass him about homework anymore. Yes he messed up his GPA his freshman year. No he's not getting any scholarships. But he's getting better each year, and that's what we've focused on.