Tutor Dealing With Middle School Learning Problems

I am a volunteer tutor in a local middle school. It has been quite a few years since I taught elementary children. I have two separate situations that I don't want to handle incorrectly.
One is with a bright 13-year-old male in a gifted program who just doesn't seem to care about doing his schoolwork. His parents are going through a divorce, but the problem started even earlier.
The other child is a 14-year-old male with attention-deficit disorder. He is bright, loves to write, but can't organize his life enough to remember assignments, hand in homework or keep his hands on his possessions. Family life is bad for him. He is repeating the eighth grade and failing again. -- Need Help
Answer: As a tutor, you need to focus primarily on helping these boys academically. Remember, you are not a counselor. However, the tutoring approach you take could help them with their problems. Ask their teachers and counselors for suggestions.
The bright child might be lured into caring more about his schoolwork through expanding the curriculum to make his assignments more challenging. On the other hand, the child with ADD needs to have a very structured approach to the materials. Follow a definite routine with him and teach him how to use an assignment notebook.