Who Can Claim the Credit?
Generally, you can claim the American opportunity credit
if all three of the following requirements are met.
• You pay qualified education expenses of higher education.
• You pay the education expenses for an eligible student.
• The eligible student is either yourself, your spouse, or
a dependent you claim on your tax return.
Pub 970, page 11
Similar wording is on page 23 for the Lifetime Learning Credit
The confusion may come from the fact that the custodial parent usually has the right to claim the student as a dependent. But if the custodial parent releases the dependency to the other parent, then the non custodial parent claims the education credit, as well as the other dependent credit.
The dependency rules have a slight twist for emancipated students, but it's still the parent claiming the dependent that gets the education credit.
