How SETX Cooperative uses Storytime AI to publish every student's story

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A cooperative built on equal access

The Southeast Texas Cooperative for Special Services (SETX Cooperative) serves four member districts — Devers, Hull-Daisetta, Liberty, and Tarkington ISDs — across a continuum of special education that includes inclusion, resource, content mastery, life skills, vision, homebound, and adaptive transportation. The cooperative’s reach spans ages 3 through 22.

Kendra Caswell leads assistive technology across all four districts. Her mission is clear: ensure every student has access to the same rich learning experiences as their peers — not simplified substitutes.

The visible gap on the hallway wall

Creative writing is a core literacy and language activity in K-5 classrooms across the cooperative. In other classrooms, students’ finished illustrated books end up on the hallway walls — public displays of effort, identity, and pride.

Ms. Caswell’s students — many with autism and language-based communication needs — rarely made it onto those walls. The barrier was not a lack of imagination or language. It was that the steps between having a story idea and holding a finished illustrated book required adult mediation at a scale no special-education schedule allows: developing characters, building settings, layering in descriptive detail, and producing an illustration on every page.

The absence of their books on those walls was visible — and visibility shapes how students see themselves as readers and writers.

The workflow: AAC in, illustrated book out

Ms. Caswell’s session structure is simple, and the student does the cognitive work.

1. Pick a theme. She chooses a story prompt — “Going on a Bear Hunt,” for example — to anchor the session.
2. The student selects their inputs. Working 1:1 or in a small group, the student uses their AAC device — TouchChat or NovaChat — to independently select icons for characters, descriptors, locations, and story details. Every idea in the book comes directly from the student.
3. Drop into Storytime AI. Ms. Caswell enters the student’s choices into Storytime AI’s Story Builder. While the book generates, she reads another student’s previous story aloud — building anticipation and sneaking in extra modeled reading practice.
4. View the student’s custom book — under a minute later. The student’s words come back as a fully illustrated, narrated read-along book.
5. The student edits. Text and illustration choices are editable. Students put their final touch on the book, practicing vocabulary and exercising agency over their own work.

“My students are not just selecting random icons — they are independently building characters, settings, and ideas through their AAC devices. The stories are completely theirs. Storytime AI simply helps bring their language to life in a way they can immediately see, share, and celebrate,” said Ms. Caswell.

When students see their ideas transformed into a fully illustrated book, confidence, pride, and persistence increase.

“AAC users deserve the same rich, creative literacy experiences as their peers — not simplified alternatives. The most meaningful part is that every story begins with the student’s own communication choices.”

— Kendra Caswell, Speech Pathologist and Assistive-Technology Lead, SETX Cooperative

Results: pride in the hallway, confidence on the page

Reading and writing have become joyful, inclusive activities. Students who previously struggled showed increased persistence in developing the characters, settings, and detail needed to bring their creative writing to life.

“For many of my students, this was the first time they saw their ideas displayed like every other child’s work in the hallway,” said Ms. Caswell. “The illustrations gave my students immense pride and ownership in their writing.”

One young student was so proud of his finished book that he stopped people on his walk to the library to show it off — then asked the librarian to project it for the whole class. He took it home that night to share with his parents.

Another reluctant student, afraid of doing it “wrong” at first, was so encouraged after making her first book that she made four more. The session ended because the period did, not because she ran out of ideas. Perfectionism, dismantled by the speed of seeing her own ideas become a finished book.

Why this matters

• AAC selection is a literacy on-ramp. Students whose primary expressive mode is AAC can author finished work at the same pace as their peers.
• Speed dismantles perfectionism. Reluctant writers’ barriers are often about the gap between imagining a story and holding one. Cut the gap to under a minute and the gap stops mattering.
• Visibility shapes identity. When students with language-based or other education needs can see their work alongside their peers’ on the hallway wall, the message about who counts as a “real” writer changes — for the students, their peers, and the adults watching.

How to scope something similar for your district

If you serve students with complex communication needs or an Individualized Education Program, we would love to explore how Storytime AI can support you and your students.

Talk to us about a special-education pilot → or start a free classroom to see Storytime AI in your own classroom.