Yes, the student must provide (and actually pay, not just have the funds) more than half of their support. Since the student did not make the original contributions to the ESA, this would not be considered as paid by the student just because she is the beneficiary. If the parents provided the original funding, they could count the ESA as support they provided ( but as I said the IRS will only be looking at how much the student has paid for essential living expenses).
You could use the IRS Worksheet 2 to establish this. When you said the parents would not be disqualified you are correct- looking the worksheet, if support is provided by the parents and even other people- as long as the student did not provide more than 50% of their own support, they parents will be able to claim them. @rerrabolu
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