Two-thirds of Australian schools are at high risk of climate perils such as floods, bushfires and storms that could set back students by disrupting their education.
Disadvantaged schools are more likely to be in the firing line of climate change-fuelled disasters, a finding Mandala Partner's Adam Triggs says could further entrench gaps in education outcomes.
"The same schools already facing socio-educational disadvantage are often those most exposed to climate impacts, creating a double burden for vulnerable communities," he said.
The consultancy has teamed up with insurance firm Zurich Australia to model the climate exposure of the individual sites housing the nation's 9829 primary and secondary schools.
A "pretty alarming" two-thirds of all schools were in the three highest-risk categories.
By 2060, as many as 84 per cent of schools could face significant climate risk, assuming 2C of warming.
NSW and Queensland have the highest volume of schools significantly exposed to climate-driven weather events, upwards of 90 per cent in both states.
Bushfire and hail pose the greatest climate risk nationwide.
Weather disasters have already been disrupting education in Australia, such as the Lismore floods in 2022 that destroyed classrooms and prompted teachers and students to relocate to sporting clubs and private properties to keep learning.
Floods and landslips blocking roads in the aftermath of 2017's Cyclone Debbie kept many Queensland students out of school for months.
Zurich head of general insurance Alex Morgan said climate modelling underscored the need to focus on adaptation.
"As an insurer of many Australian schools, Zurich is acutely aware of this growing physical and societal risk."
Dr Triggs said relocation might be necessary in the most extreme cases but the focus should be on fortifying existing infrastructure.
"For hail, you're looking at how do you strengthen roofs, and how do you strengthen and get sort of flood protection measures in?" he told AAP.
Future schools should also be built in safer locations, he added.
Extreme heat is a further handbrake on learning and expected earnings of students once they finish school.
Air conditioning provides some relief for the schools that have it, but students exposed to unbearable heat on the way to school and robbed of their outdoor lunch breaks also tend to perform worse cognitively.
Students will swelter through a projected 34 annual heatwave days by 2060, with extreme heat set to reduce the academic attainment by up to seven per cent.
The drag on learning from extreme heat is expected to weigh on future productivity and wages over their lives, leading to a roughly $75,000 reduction in lifetime earnings.
