Too many decades ago the only question I failed on my driver's test was "can you drive without a license". I answered no and got it wrong. Of course you can drive. Should you drive is a different question. Then both of my kids got the same question on their test and because of me, they got it right.

To your point about can you - not to your specific question about which parent or who paid - many colleges bill in December for the spring semester. Many times in the last semester before graduation we don't have a 1098-T but we do have a 1099-Q for it, or we do have other expenses. So there are times we need to fill in Part IV of the Student Information Worksheet manually.