Thank you for your reply, AmyC. I was not keen on removing all student information, so I tried these steps in Forms View and they worked: 1) First I went into the Student Information worksheet and deleted the Y/N section about paying a student loan and deleted the amount of the loan payment near the bottom. 2) Then I deleted the 1099Q for the loan payment. 3) There was a form that indicated it was "not done" - I think it was the Tuition Summary. I re-launched the optimizer (I have another college student), and the red not done indicator disappeared.
After those steps, the 5239 and Schedule 2 went away, and my return no longer reflects additional income for excess distributions. So I am now in good shape (yay!) and I keep good records. I do believe there is a flaw in how TT is accounting for the SECURE Act of 2019 provision that up to $10,000 in lifetime student loan payments are now considered qualified higher education expenses.
