The requirement for EIC is that the student is at least a half-time student for at least 5 months (including parts of 5 months).

The 1098-T box only shows if the student is at least a half-time student for at least one academic period, which may not necessarily be 5 months.  So the 1098-T box can't automatically check the box.

And as the way the software is set up now, the EIC worksheet just has a check box for "yes" for half time student.  So the way it is set up, the software CAN'T really highlight anything because there is only ONE box (it would need to have two boxes, so you could make a choice).

Although you are right that checking the full-time student box on the information would be able to automatically check the EIC box, that could mislead people to think that less than full-time student could not check the box (again, the requirement is to be at least half-time).

As tax professionals it is OUR job to make sure the tax return is correct.  While the software may be helpful to avoid some mistakes, we can't rely on the software to take us step-by-step through everything.  We need to know the rules, and apply those rules to the tax return.