I've seen some of those 2% grades. When the last week of school gets here, the mom and son will come to you to find out if there is any way the child can pass.
I do think that as educators, we must display compassion, however we are not the sole owners of this responsibility. Parents forget about their kids feelings far more that teachers do. I had a parent come to my school to have lunch with her daughter, and she was telling me that her daughter was still totally unable to read and that this was hard for her since her brother began reading a 4 (mind you, I am a high school counselor). The students friends were sitting at the lunch table the entire time. The student just looked at me like she was about to cry. Could I, as the child's counselor sue the parent? No. I did talk to her in my office about the fact that the child may not want everyone in B lunch to know that she can't read, but I handled it individually, and did not make it a legal issue (this same parent would probably sue any educator for saying the same things that she said).