School children will have a more difficult time skipping classes in the future if a softwa

A start-up company called School-Soft, based in Cupertino, Calif., unveiled an upgrade to its software that lets parents monitor their child's performance in school over the Internet.

The company has developed software that runs on Corp.'s popular Palm-Pilot handheld computers. School-Soft resells the Palm-Pilot to schools, pre-loaded with School Soft software, plus programs to run on a school's network server. School teachers can then enter into the Palm-Pilot student attendance data, grades, homework assignments, activities and the like, which is sent to the school's central server. Later, parents with either Internet access or just a telephone can access the school's server for updates from the teacher. Before the software upgrade, parents could only access the system via the telephone.

Jim Weldon, School-Soft founder and chief executive, said the company at present has an installed base of about 330 schools around the United States, and that the software was used for children in kindergarten all the way up to secondary school. "In high school, parents really want to track activities, grades, etc.—how do they get on track to go to college？" said Weldon. "Children also have access as well to their academic records...Sometimes you don't know where you are."

When asked if many children have objected to their parents using the software, Weldon said that most are aware of the advantages the software can provide, such as letting them know about grades and performance issues in school—long before report cards arrive.

The old copy of the software______.

A．is internet based

B．is telephone based

C．is well accepted

D．is well programmed