> you'd be able to have multiple accounts/profiles on iPad, and that's still not a thing that exists.

It does exist, it just requires the iPad to be managed via MDM, which most schools would have (and should implement if they don't have it). JamF, Mosyle, Business Essentials, InTune and probably any other MDM can put an iPad into shared iPad mode with multiple profiles.

Have you seen the classroom app? It allows for multiple profiles on an iPad. I've never used it, so I don't know how well it works.

https://support.apple.com/guide/deployment/shared-ipad-overv...