Up to $25K of rental loss is deductible on the income tax return against ordinary income ... if you qualify the program does this automatically and it cannot be changed. 

What do i need to change in order to classify a rental loss to passive and get it off of Schedule 1, line 17.

good input

SCH 1 line 17 has absolutely nothing to do with rental income in any way, form or fashion. Line 17 of the SCH 1 is for the penalty on early withdrawal of savings. So if you're not supposed to have anything on that line, your error has nothing what-so-ever to do with SCH E.

See the blank SCH 1 form for 2019 at https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040s1.pdf

@Carl OP is referring to Schedule 1 Line 17 for tax year 2018.  The date of the post was October 15, 2019

Schedule 1 (2018) - https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-prior/f1040s1--2018.pdf