Do coronavirus ‘wave parades’ for schools and birthdays violate N.J. stay-at-home order? In most cases, they’re OK.

Drive-by parades are OK after all, New Jersey’s emergency management director said Monday, clarifying earlier guidance that seemed to discourage the popular coronavirus events.

Col. Patrick Callahan of the New Jersey State Police, who also serves as the state emergency management director, had issued a letter Saturday to the state Department of Education and its schools saying that in the name of public health, parades, including wave parades that “invite people to gather at a certain location,” should “be canceled or postponed” until the stay-at-home order is lifted.

The social distancing celebrations have become common since March, when Gov. Phil Murphy ordered most businesses closed and directed residents to stay at home until further notice because of the pandemic. For birthdays, parents organize their children’s friends to drive past their houses in decorated cars, and many schools have sent caravans of teachers driving through their students’ neighborhoods to honk, wave, and shout inspiring messages to children gathered on doorsteps and sidewalks. Others have been held to honor health-care workers or graduating seniors.

Callahan, at the governor’s daily news briefing on Monday, sought to clear up any confusion. He said that “a wave parade that does not summon students or individuals to one location … is certainly not in violation" of Murphy’s executive order.

Murphy, in the past, has called such gatherings “touching” and Callahan on Monday said they were “a great gesture to give that sense of solidarity,” but said he had information about some planned parades that would gather students on the front lawn of schools or town halls.

Mount Laurel School District Superintendent George Rafferty said in a communication to parents on Wednesday that district officials “believe it is in the best interest of the health and safety of our staff and families not to sponsor or encourage such parades as a way to recognize or acknowledge our staff or students.”

Earlier, the school system had suggested that the township police department could issue citations if the parades were held. The police department, in a message to residents, said that was not the case and that parades could happen as long as they did so in a safe manner, but that it would not participate in them.

Other municipalities are aiding in the planning of such events.

In Collingswood, schools have held parades, organized by principals and blessed by the borough police, without gathering large groups of people, Superintendent Scott Oswald said.

The parades, Oswald said, “bring life to a community in desperate need of something about which to smile. It was good for the spirits of our staff as it has been for the community. And the importance of that cannot be overstated.”

School systems, Oswald said, “know what we’re doing, and we don’t and won’t put people’s health in jeopardy.”

Staff writer Pranshu Verma contributed to this article.