The Louisiana High School Athletic Association (LHSAA) had to implement a rule several years ago in an attempt to keep parents of 8th graders from holding their kids back for what it deemed "athletic purposes." The issue became more and more prevalent, to the point where some HS coaches encouraged the practice, and some schools offered advanced classes to 8th grade student-athletes who elected to redo the year. I went to MS w/ a future TAMU basketball player who held back twice (spent 3 years in 8th grade and was an A/B student the first time through!).
The rule previously read that a student had 8 consecutive semesters to compete in HS athletics and could not turn 19 prior to 9/1. The rule has been extended to cover middle school (12 consecutive semesters). In La, a student's high school eligibility clock begins when that student enters junior high. Although this rule has helped curtail the "problem", parents now hold their children back in 5th grade.
I went to MS/HS with many kids whose parents felt it was in Johnny's best athletic interest to be of maximum age upon HS graduation. Some of the "holdbacks" went on to extremely successful college and professional careers. Most were, simply, 19 yr. old HS grads.
Would the successful athletes have had the same opportunities had they not benefited from an extra year of development? Does any state have the right to legislate parents' rights to make decisions they feel are in their child's best interest?
The major factor that led to the rule change was the argument that taxpayers' dollars were being spent to educate a student for another year, even though the student mastered all academic requirements for promotion. Not sure about now, but at the time, it was 100% OK for a parent to ask for his/her child be retained for "maturity" reasons. If a student failed to meet academic/attendance requirements, that student was forced to retry the grade, though there was no negative impact on athletic eligibility.