Why Tartan
Schools that moved from Red Herring to Tartan App tell us three things changed. Their phishing tests kept running without anyone restarting them, the click rate stopped looking better than it was, and teachers stopped feeling tricked. On Tartan, every person gets a different practice email at a different time.
Free onboarding. Same-day support via email, phone, or video call.
Why Tartan wins
Districts that ran Red Herring through their county office and then moved to Tartan told us what made the difference.
Each person gets a different practice email at a random time, so staff can't warn each other. One district that read about 3% on Red Herring saw about 15% on its first Tartan cycles. A few months later, it was down to about 6.4%.
Pick a 15, 30, 60, or 90-day cycle once and Tartan keeps sending. New staff are added from Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, and emails usually reach inboxes without allowlisting. One district had paused its quarterly Red Herring tests because each campaign took manual setup.
Anyone who clicks gets a lesson in under 30 seconds, and staff earn points for catching tests and reporting phish. One district whose teachers didn't want to be "tricked" anymore told us it had no complaints after the switch.
Staff report suspicious email with one button in Gmail or Outlook. Threat Manager scores each report and can move the email to spam or delete it from every mailbox at once. Red Herring's add-in forwards reports to an admin dashboard, with no removal step in its user guide.
Comparison
A clear view of where Tartan fits K-12 needs compared with Red Herring.
Comparison details can vary based on plan and configuration. Contact us for a tailored assessment.
Texas Cyber Command certified Tartan App’s cybersecurity awareness training program for the 2026–2027 program year.
K-12 proof
Measured result
Monroe School District staff reported 23 invoice and accounts-payable lures with Tartan App Shield.
Testimonial
"A lack of effective training on phishing attacks and a limited ability to report suspicious emails."
Jesse Crowther, Director of Technology Services, Monroe School District, on what the district faced before Tartan
Contact us
Get a personalized walkthrough and see how Tartan fits your district's security awareness goals.
FAQs
Yes, if it runs Red Herring. SDCOE lets county offices set up sub-accounts for their districts and schools, each with a set number of users. The Los Angeles County Office of Education, for one, publishes a Red Herring setup guide for its districts. Ask your county office how many users your sub-account covers. Tartan prices per school, with unlimited staff for districts and school boards.
SDCOE doesn't publish a price. Its FAQ says there may be an annual subscription fee and a one-time implementation fee. Schools in San Diego County have told us they get it free. Public purchase orders from 2022 to 2026 show other California districts paying from about $280 a year (5 to 9 schools, through their county office) to $2,550 (31 schools), and $8,800 for a 113-school district.
Tartan's phishing simulations cost $116 a year for one school. For $191, that school also gets staff video training and the report button with Threat Manager. Prices for 1 to 10 schools are on our pricing page.
Red Herring's add-in forwards the email to a dashboard in its admin portal, where admins investigate it. Its user guide lists no step to remove the email from other mailboxes. In Tartan, every report goes to Threat Manager, which can move the email to spam or delete it from every mailbox at once.
SDCOE built Red Herring for TK-12 staff, and its pages list no student training (as of Nov 2026). Tartan sells Student Phishing & Video Training for every grade, K-12, with its own price per school.
The San Diego County Office of Education. It built Red Herring for TK-12 staff in San Diego County, and schools across California and other states now use it. This page is about that phishing awareness tool. If you came for the figure of speech, that's a different red herring.
