Did you use the same procedure for your daughters - paying the church, and the church paid the tuition?
You can try claiming the credit, but the IRS has a copy of your 1098-T, and it says that all of your tuition was paid by scholarship. If you try to explain this arrangement, they will insist that you should claim a deduction for money you gave to the church, or they may deny both the credit and the deduction, for reasons discussed above. Depends on whether they audit you, and if they do, whether the auditor is feeling charitable on that day.
