Hi Stephanie.
Boy have I been there! I have found most kids struggle with organizational skills, and a lot have attention issues stemming from food allergies & lagging nutrition. I don't mean that as any slight on your friend, just sharing what I've learned raising an ADHD boy who was only on meds 3 years of his school career.
I would honestly suggest having his allergies tested if attention is an issue. My son is allergic to cornstarch, which is in EVERYTHING processed. I had to start feeding him old-school oatmeal, which we dressed up in fun ways starting with chocolate chips & peanut butter. For lunch I had to do a lot of homework on breads then treats, etc. Thank God he only ever wanted a pb&j! That was easy. Then dinner I had to do a lot more cooking and less opening. I had to grow up and cook, mind I was a very young mom and had married a single dad so at 21 I had to figure this all out, which is why I said grow up and cool. :)
I would definitely tell the mom to check out Flylady.net. That is a great, FREE, organization mentor. She helped me tons & tons. She also has student planners you can download. But the thing with ADD is that they need organization & lists. This group helps with that. There are tons of testimonials about how this group has helped with kids' add.
Also, making sure the kids sit down right after school, with a snack, to do their homework really really helps. They come home with the stuff in their head. If they do the work while it's fresh, there is less of an issue of forgetting how to do things. If they put it off until 6 or 7 then they're struggling to remember what the math formula was and how to do it. I know this child is in 1st Grade but that's his future, too.
That said, the school will have resources to help as well, I just wanted to address the home stuff. And maybe it would help if she did have him tested for add, but I really have come to believe that ADD is a symptom of something else. I'd check allergies & home habits first. My guy wouldn't grow or gain any weight on his meds. He was in 5th grade & still weighed 60 lbs, which he'd weighed for THREE YEARS!! I was so freaked out by this, plus when he "came down" from the medicine he was scary with huge pupils, and really spacey expressions. I hated that! But he decided on his own to not take the medicine. I overhauled our nutrition, etc. And he did a lot better. He was no academic, but he did graduate. Also, I have found people with ADHD just do better in vocations rather than sitting in a classroom. My boy is now 19 and serving in the Air Force. He graduated in the top 5 in his class for fire safety. He loved classes because they were hands-on & fast. Part of add is that the kids are super bright & get bored in normal classrooms! My husband was the same, gave up on school early because he was always bored & when he did do classwork they thought he had cheated. So there are many variables. I hope all this has helped in some way.
D.