Since this topic has permeated all regions, I thought it prudent to establish a scale for debate. All birthdays are for the 2028 age group.

Playing up - current 5th grader
On age - 2010 birthday, 6th grade
Older on age - born after 9/1/09, old WSYL cutoff and NY
Level 1 - summer birthday: July-aug 2009, always a 28. Likely did a pre first or started school later
Level 2 - reclass/repeat: July-aug 2009 that recently started playing with 28s after being a 27. Normally happens with a school change. Reclasses are young 7th graders and play on 28 teams who will be held back in an upcoming year (this is shady). repeats are now in 6th grade.
Level 3: older repeat: Jan-jun 2009. Repeated a grade somewhere along the way with some doing a pre first or 2 kindergartens.
Level 4: egregious holdback sep-dec 2008: should be a 27 and on the older side for that group, gaming the system
Level 5: double holdback: aug 08 and before, no business playing 28, gaming the system

From conversations and observations across the country. The vast majority of teams outside of New York are mostly on age and level 1. NY considers anything past 9/1 as a holdback but Level 1 kids and parents only know this age group. Both groups have a point with NY teams playing kids a few months older that would be a grade up at home and level 1 parents see itching wrong since they are within the grade rules. As the talent level improves, more Level 2 enter and a few Level 3 and things get sideways since it comes off as patently unfair as the age gap increases (although still within the rules). Level 4 does exist at this group but is fairly rare and obvious for teams from Mid Atlantic and New England. Level 5 occurs later in 8th or 9th grade as parents pull out all the stops before high school.
My suggestion would be to go age based and make the cutoff may 1. This would give families options and a level field for geographic nuances for grade based play. Calendar year is also an option but that tends to split grades since many 6th graders are late 09 and 5th graders are late 10.

Happy debating and let’s keep it on this board versus spread out across all of BOTC