I dunno, I could see that really resonating with parents who want complete knowledge of their child's location at all times. And what they were doing.

That type of technology satisfies every parent: those who want to be helicoptering, can see where their child is at this very moment. The parents who don't care, can do nothing.

I applaud your general cynical outlook. However, I tend to think schools can only control 1 thing: parents being upset. Politicians / standardized scores / etc., all are generally outside of the individual school (staff, admin, teachers) control.

So schools optimize to minimize parental complaints and staff time, because it's one of the few knobs they can turn.