@Mike My understanding is that they are going to now be forced to use it because the option will be no longer be available on the Form 1098-T. When the IRS "reserves" a line it means you are no longer able to use that line to add data. So, there would be no way for them to report that information to the student without using box 1. Now, that it's been officially implemented, I would suspect the IRS may be more willing to enforce compliance next year.
