My fairly disorganized kid managed to take care of her passport &
SS card all the way through college. I sent her off with a big Manila envelope with those, her health insurance card, and checkbook in it. Told her to bring the envelope in her carryon each summer when she came home (don’t store it). And to at least stow it in a drawer under stuff in her dorm room & lock her doors. Also to put things back in it after using them. She just schlepped it off to grad school a few weeks ago.
We did the exact same thing with an expandable folder for my daughter. She is now fully launched - living and working on her own and the folder still holds her valuable paperwork. The key to keeping these papers safe is to not carry them with you - put them back in the folder after use. My daughter had a few freinds in college who had their license, college ID, and passport all in their backpack which was stolen. Hard to replace all these things at one time - without the others to prove ID (they also had their ATM card and their only cash in the backpack). If your child doesn’t drive at school (no access to vehicles) - they don’t need to carry their license on campus - my daughter only took hers when she went off campus and needed proof of age/ID.
Regarding passports, the US now offers passport cards. These are valid only for land and sea crossings between the US, Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Bermuda. But they are more convenient to carry and less easily damaged than the passport book, and less valuable to thieves, so they may be better for domestic ID purposes like work authorization or dealing with Arpaio-like police if you are brown.
I sent my son off to college with his drivers license and social security card, knowing he would be getting a job soon. I had bought a small security lock box with a cable to attach to something in his room, but decided against bringing it. I thought it almost seemed to draw more attention. We put his SSN card in a plain white envelope and taped it in a very hidden spot in his dorm room. Once he has a job and the I-9 is complete, he will bring the SSN card home.
Son doesn’t have a passport, but it’s on our list of things to do.
Our son had his SS card…and our DD had her passport. One of the most important things a kid learns is the importance of keeping important documents in a safe place.
Any student going away to college should be able to handle having any of these documents.
Soon students with DL from 9 states will have to have another form of ID (like a passport) to go through security at airports and federal buildings.
We don’t live in any of those 9 states, but my kids use their passports more than the DL to travel anyway.
Scan the first page of the passport and email it to her. (Save that file in case the document is ever lost…makes replacement much easier.) I’ll bet they’ll accept that as official. I’d also send the actual passport and let her keep up with it. She’ll surprise you with her responsibility!
I bet they will not accept a copy of the passport page. Read the I-9 requirements.
“When completing Form I-9, you or authorized representative must physically examine each document presented to determine if it reasonably appears to be genuine and relates to the employee presenting it.”
What @twoinanddone said. The HR person certifies that the document was an original passport. It also must be unexpired - apparently, a new requirement.
The passport is in the mail. It is unexpired. I insured the package for the amount it would cost to replace it. Bases covered. Now hopefully she’ll be assigned an interesting job.
Funny story - when she was in high school, she had a work study period a couple of semesters. She helped out in the school office. When she received her college FA award, I told pointed out that a part of her package was work study and she said “OK, I’m good with that.” Then a few weeks later I was telling her that she would appreciate the pocket money she would earning with her work study job and she said “You mean I’m going to get paid for that?!” ;))
Update: visiting D1 (age 28). She needed a document today, and pulled out the tattered Manila envelope that she went off with to colllege 10 years ago. 
When my S was in college he needed his original SS card for his on campus job. He has ADD and poor organizational skills and I hesitated sending it but had no other option. I put it inside an envelope with an additional envelope and note to send it back to me after he showed it as proof of ability to work in US. He of course did not.
His first 2 jobs out of college were both independent contractor positions and he was never asked. When he got his third job it was as a full time employee and at that point we realized he had never returned the SS card. He was set to have to go to the Social security office for a replacement when he was unpacking a box from college (at this point he was moving out of our house). Underneath a pile of stuff from his college apartment was the SS card still in the envelope that I sent him to rerun to me along with a note that it was an important document not to be lost and he should return it to me immediately.
He is now 28 and after many years of misplaced items he is now organized about his important papers.