Labor wants school students in bushfire zones to get trauma counselling when they go back to school, with psychologists warning a significant minority of children will have ongoing problems.

Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese said the $2 billion bushfire recovery effort should place "a particular focus on the return to school in a few weeks’ time", saying children "might not be showing any impacts at the moment, but have taken in a huge crisis in their short lives".

Anthony Albanese says the federal government needs to boost its health response to the fires. Credit:Mark Brake

Lisa Gibbs from Melbourne University's School of Population and Global Health, who led a major study of the psychological aftermath of the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires, said governments should be coordinating a long-term, "staged" response as mental health impacts would continue for years.

"A significant minority will have ongoing issues," Professor Gibbs said, saying those whose families and communities were disrupted in the longer term were at increased risk.