A lot of complaints I've seen have passed under the bridge. But, playing through again (to enjoy me some Mycock Manor), a few observations:
'Oh noez, i can't advance to chapter 2!" You can, you just activated another punishment vote. That voting page has (at least) two pages; go back to page 1 (bottom of screen) and stay happy.
"Oh noez, my girls aren't advancing!" This one seems a little more complicated. Stuff I've noticed:
In C1, try not to trigger Cassandra in afternoon if any of Amy, Rachel, or Debbie is already scheduled for punishment. Yeah, that means leave poor Faye in the lobby.
In C1, if you advance Debbie to 3 before unlocking her quest bit, game still works fine, but won't get the smacking nurse's bottom in class scene. This appears to be a Maxine activation thing to me, but I'm just some goomer on the outside.
In C1, Amy's advancement can be interrupted by not only Cassandra, but by almost anything. I did not experiment with this, but ... just follow the suggestions, and know that doing two after class punishments will advance the added girl (almost always Cassandra) and not Amy.
The script is there to follow; just do it.