If I was given financial aid for college, do I have the ability to still use it as a tax break?

Tuition paid and financial aid received are reported by colleges and universities on IRS form 1098-T.

Enter the 1098-T information into the TurboTax software, answer the required questions and you may qualify for a American Opportunity Credit or other tuition related credit or deduction on your Federal 1040.

This TurboTax Help explains how to enter the 1098-T.

Maybe.

If you financial aid was loans, those payments are treated the same as if you paid it out of pocket.  You may claim the full tuition credit or deduction. 

If your aid was scholarships, there's still a possible tax “loophole” available. The student reports all his scholarship, up to the amount needed to claim the American opportunity credit, as income on his return. That way, the parents  (or himself, if he is not a dependent) can claim the tuition credit on their return. They can do this because that much tuition was no longer paid by "tax free" scholarship.  You cannot do this if the school’s billing statement specifically shows the scholarships being applied to tuition or if the conditions of the grant are that it be used to pay for qualified expenses.

Using an example: Student has $10,000 in box 5 of the 1098-T and $8000 in box 1. At first glance he/she has $2000 of taxable income and nobody can claim the American opportunity credit. But if she reports $6000 as income on her return, the parents can claim $4000 of qualified expenses on their return.

To do that, you essentially have to use a work around in TurboTax (TT), on both the parent's and student's return. 

This is legal. From the 2018 form 1040 instructions (pg 100): “You may be able to increase an education credit if the student chooses to include all or part of a Pell grant or certain other scholarships or fellowships in income. For more information, see Pub. 970, the instructions for Form 1040, line 17c, and IRS.gov/EdCredit.  Page 16 of PUB 970 (2019) actually has examples of how to do the “loop hole”.