@tac105 was any of the $28k in scholarships "unrestricted" in how the money was used? For example, Pell Grants are "unrestricted". How much was Pell?
If there was at least $3500 of unrestricted scholarships, your child would report that $3500 as income (if they even have a filing requirement) and you would use the $3500 to add to the $500 to create the $4000 of QEE required to maximize AOTC.
In this approach, there would be $24.5k of QEE and $28k of scholarships reported by your child, netting to $3500 of income. You would report the other $3500 of QEE plus the $500 of books as QEE on your tax return.
However, if all of the scholarships are "restricted" to tuition and books, it's not going to work.
