Parental involvement

I'm conflicted about parental involvement in studies. Current philosophy encourages parental involvement on the theory that it is helpful to student success, but I don't think that this is always the case. Part of this is the current mismanagement of parental involvement. In my school, the only time parents are called is when something is wrong with a student. Parents are called to "discipline" their child and convince them to work harder in school. Am I the only one distressed by this? If parents are going to be involved in their child's education, it should be all the time, not just when the child has been "bad".
Another issue I have with parental involvement is the parents who just don't care. One of the teachers in my building told a story about a parent who didn't care what their child was doing. When the teacher stated that the child skipped class at least once a week and appeared tired and disinterested when he showed up, the parent responded with, "Yep. That sounds like him." and then made an excuse to leave the conversation. I think this is terrible, but I can't figure out a solution. I believe that parents should be interested in their child's education for multiple reasons, but what do you do about a parent that doesn't care about their child?
At my school, the teachers use Powerschool to share grades with parents. This allows parents to easily track their child's grades and progress. This system has several flaws, however. Most grades are not final until they are submitted at the end of a semester. At the beginning of a semester, if a student misses one assignment, they could have an F entered in Powerschool. This is not a reflection on them as a student, however. Once they turn in the assignment, their grade will go up, but their parent sees the F. Typical parent behavior dictates a blowup at this point.
In addition, not every parent even knows much about Powerschool. The high school I attended had something similar, and my parents didn't even know it existed. I never gave them the information. I kept it, and I used it to check my own grades. In my opinion, it was a stupid system. If my parents wanted to know my grades, the could ask me. There was no need for a computer to spit those answers back.