Typically, the plan administrator can make distributions payable to:
1) The account owner;
2) The beneficiary; or
3) Directly to the school
It's not necessary, and probably overly complicates things, to have the payments go through an extra set of hands. If the distribution is paid to the account owner, they can then pay the school. The school doesn't care where the money comes from. If the distribution is paid to the beneficiary, she can then pay the school (it will help if she has a checking account). If the distribution is made directly to the school, make sure the school understands that the money is coming from a 529 account, and is not a scholarship.