General supplies are not Qualified Education Expenses. If the art class requires a certain type of pens or paper, it will be a QEE. My daughters had some strange stuff that was required like lab goggles and a yoga mat and pillow, so those were included in QEE. Notebooks, paper, even a calculator or computer needs to be required. I’ve never understood why schools don’t require more things that students really do need, like computers and calculators, on the supply list. It doesn’t cost the school anything to put it on the ‘required’ list.
I had my kids keep a running list of things they’d purchased that were required for their classes, along with their books. We were never audited but we had the lists.