You do not pick and choose whether you claim your son as a dependent.
If he is under 24 and a full time student and you provide more than half of his support for the tax year, you can claim him as a dependent. If you do not claim him, then you lose the Other dependent credit of $500 and you cannot claim his education credit from his form 1098-T.
On his own tax return, he is asked the question whether he paid more than half of his own support. If the answer is No, then he has to say that he can claimed as a dependent by someone else. And he will not be eligible for the first two stimulus payments. As someone who can be claimed as a dependent but is not actually claimed, he can claim the non-refundable part of the American Opportunity credit, but not the refundable part.
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