ok, i'll admit upfront it's a slow day, and I made a couple of calls. it turns out that NYS has no fixed birthdate requirements - it's up to the individual school district..so ours is 12/1/99 to 12/1/00 for 6th grade, but the next town over is 11/30/99 to 11/30/00. no wonder people get angry about '99's' in this age group - what's incorrect in their district may be fine somewhere else. i agree the much bigger problem is the playing down, particularly now as 7th and 8th grade boys are hitting puberty.
