At a loss for how to handle issues with my son

My son is 11 years old, and just started 6th grade earlier this year. Extreme distraction and forgetfulness have him already failing 4 of his 7 classes.I tried having him fill out his planner and get it signed by teachers to help him remember, but he only remembered the 'get it signed' part, and so the planner mostly came home empty with just teacher initials on it. I've talked to him several times about it, and reminded him every morning before leaving for school, but nothing has changed.I had a conference with his teachers, and he was put on a system similar to his planner, but with more in-depth reporting for the teachers so I can get more information about how his day went. It's on day 3 of this system, and he's failed to get this form filled out twice already. During the conference with his teachers, they all said he is extremely distracted with either drawing or reading books in class. With the class size and teaching load they have, they are not able to constantly remind him to stay on task, and he often ends up getting nothing done during class time.Failure to have his planner and other form filled out means I don't know what he has due for homework, which means homework often doesn't get done. Homework is a small percentage of his grade overall, but I know that homework not getting done, combined with being distracted in class means he won't know the material when it comes time to take tests.I've tried incentivizing good grades and performance at school with access to electronics (which were previously disallowed during the school week), movie nights, sleepovers, etc. These incentives seem to work for one or two days, and then it's right back to being super distracted in class, and forgetting everything. Negative reinforcement does not work at all, and only seems to make the issue worse.All of this is not a completely new issue, but it is much worse this year than it has been in the past. I think this is partly because the work was much easier before and he didn't have to put in much effort, combined with the fact that teachers had more time to devote 1 on 1 and keep him on task.I've started taking him to a therapist because I thought that this might be some kind of emotional lashing out because of several big life changes in the last couple years. The therapist said she suspects it could be ADD, but she's not able to diagnose or treat anything like that. I was told to go through the school's counselor and their system, but they told me it is a 3 to 6 month process so he can be observed and then properly diagnosed if it is ADD. However, that time frame puts my son in jeopardy of failing 6th grade if we can't turn things around in the meantime.I asked my parents for advice, and all they could do was laugh and reminisce about how I had the same problems in school. I have no one else I can ask for advice. I'm at my wit's end, and I don't know what to do anymore.If there's any information I missed that might be helpful, feel free to ask. via /r/Parenting https://ift.tt/2RiqQmZ