Travelling within US as an international student without a passport and with a child

Question

My wife, my 5 year old child, and I would be flying to San Francisco for our German visa. At the consulate, our passports would be collected. My question is how do I fly back with our passports taken? My wife and I have driver license. I guess that might work. But my concern is that we wouldn't have any ID for our child. We would have her birth certificate but since it is not a US birth certificate I am not sure how much stock to put into it. Has anyone had any experience with something similar? I am planning to take copies of all our documents, like passport and visa. Would that help? Any suggestions?

Additional Information: I have Oregon's driver license whereas my wife has a learner's permit. We are flying Alaska from San Francisco.

I was wondering if talking to the TSA when we land there and tell them about our conundrum might be helpful or would that be an exercise in futility?

Final Update: Thank you everyone for your opinions and suggestions. In the end having the driver's license and permit sufficed. I was also ready with bank cards as well as copy of the passports for all of us, but it was not needed.

Answer 1

my concern is that we wouldn't have any ID for our child.

Children under the age of 18 years do not need to show ID to pass the TSA checkpoint:

Adult passengers 18 and older must show valid identification at the airport checkpoint in order to travel.

https://www.tsa.gov/travel/security-screening/identification

This leaves the airline's ID requirements, but you haven't mentioned which airline. As an example, United:

Children under the age of 18 traveling with an adult are not required to show ID at time of check-in.

https://www.united.com/ual/en/us/fly/travel/id/travel.html

In an edit, you note that your wife has only a learner's permit. If it's a photo document that resembles a driver's license, it should be ok. Otherwise, your wife may have trouble and it might indeed be a good idea to check with TSA about that. Another possibility is to ask whether the consulate can allow her to retain her passport for the flight home and then send it to the consulate by mail or courier. Finally, TSA has a procedure for identifying travelers who have lost or forgotten their identification document; my wife (a foreign resident of the US in nonimmigrant status) did this several years ago; it basically consisted of giving them her bank cards whereafter they asked her about various facts that they checked against her credit report. It took a bit longer than usual, of course, but the additional time needed was fairly reasonable.