Kinglake principals have asked for more school chaplains as their shellshocked students and teachers return to their schools this week.

The Rev Dr Evonne Paddison, CEO of Access Ministries, has met with school principals in the Kinglake area in the past week.

"They (the principals) told me that they would take as many chaplains as we could supply and for them to stay as long as possible," Dr Paddison says.

"Principals are worried about the children's trauma and grief, as well as the wellbeing of their teachers and staff who have also been affected."

The plea for Access Ministries to provide more chaplains has also been made by the State Department of Education.

Yet Dr Paddison says the challenge ahead is trying to fulfil this request. So far, Access Ministries " Victoria’s primary provider of Christian school chaplains "  has sent 10 extra chaplains to affected areas, including Kinglake, Strathewen and Flowerdale.

"We could have sent more chaplains " but it means pulling them out of other schools and so leaving those schools unattended," Dr Paddison explains.

Some chaplains from other schools in Victoria have volunteered during the crisis but are preparing to return to their own schools, while several part-time chaplains in the fire-effected areas are prepared to work full-time if funding can be provided.

Some principals in the Kinglake region have indicated the need for increased numbers of chaplains may remain for as long as two years as communities recover.

"The recovery of these children, schools and communities will take a lot of time and work, and we need more full-time chaplains for the long haul," Dr Paddison asserts.

Access Ministries, Victoria's primary provider of chaplains to over 270 State schools in Victoria.

Apart from listening and "walking alongside' people, Dr Paddison says some school chaplains in the area have been approached to run memorial services for bushfire victims.

"Chaplains have always run memorial services, but it's a big call for a chaplain in this situation, because it's not just one child that's affected, it's a community," she says.

Others are helping students and their families in practical ways, as they seek also to address emotional and spiritual needs.

One school chaplain drove his own caravan to Yea so that a family who lost their home in the fires could live in it, while others are supporting fellow chaplains who lost homes or loved ones.

Tragedy highlights spiritual need

At least 30 Victorian schools have been affected in some way by the fires, Dr Paddison says, and three have been burnt to the ground.

"Schools have been asking for more chaplains because they see what the chaplains are doing and some psychologists and social workers want chaplains as well because people are asking questions like "What is the meaning of life?'," Dr Paddison explains.

"Even schools who hadn't had chaplains before are now asking for them."

These requests come nine months after Democrat senator Lyn Allison branded the Federal Government's National School Chaplaincy Program "discriminatory' for funding religious chaplains only.

Dr Paddison says the aftermath of the fires has shown a need for a spiritual dimension to the care that might normally be provided by a social worker or counsellor.

"Chaplains are so important in their roles at the moment " and CRE teachers " because people know them and have a bond with them and look to them for spiritual answers and love," she says.

"So often in our normal work, even without the bushfires, when grief strikes of any sort " whether it is an accident or suicide " we find the welfare people send people to chaplains because the questions that come up are ones chaplains are so good at dealing with."