Since we're focusing on that last chart, the week the national emergency was declared was also the same week where schools started shutting down en masse; NYC DOE shut down week of March 15[1], and during the enuring weeks and months had issues scrambling to issue tablets to low-income families.

The participation rates for Zearn is, at best, a proxy. And when they say "student progress", I believe it means "students solving puzzles and progressing through the lessons" (whether that's with parental supervision or self-supervised).

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/15/nyregion/nyc-schools-clos...