A current issue in Japan is building sustainable living environments in light of its shrinking and aging population. Depopulated regions in particular have seen significant declines in birthrates, and face the problem of the consolidation and closure of elementary schools. There are fears that the withdrawal of schools from an area may impoverish the region and make for less sustainable living. Meanwhile, the issue of school consolidation has triggered the development of resident-led efforts for regional preservation in various areas, and these efforts have been recognized as forming part of sustainable living support infrastructure. Accordingly, this study looked at elementary schools with a rural village student-family schooling system to sustain elementary schools and their surrounding regions for the purpose of clarifying the actual conditions of these schemes, and conducted a survey of three areas with a comparatively good record for such a scheme on a national level. The study produced the following findings.<br> 1. The study clarified the processes and operating structures of village schooling schemes in the three areas, from inception to the present. One feature shared by all three areas is that the region's residents participated in the village schooling activities, and got involved with a sense of being interested parties to the scheme. Another characteristic is that the organizational structure is inherent in the three areas, and the members of the organization differs depending on the activity history.<br> 2. As a feature of the content of the initiatives, each organization has a common point in interviewing, offering houses, life counselling and introducing work at the start of schooling. Next, at the stage of the start of schooling, matches such as entrance examination and interview of decision to join schooling system are made by the organization. Thirdly, there are two types of houses to be offered: " Houses for newcomers (vacant houses used)" and " Houses exclusively for mountain village schooling families (public housing)". In the latter, there are one that utilizes existing public housing and the other is newly constructed.<br> 3. The schemes can be considered to have a certain effect towards sustaining schools, as the numbers of pupils at elementary schools were maintained through village schooling students. In addition, part of the improvement of regional power was caught, as the accumulation power of building resources has increased due to the continuation of schools and the utilization of vacant houses, and the formation organization of residents' organizations has improved due to the formation of three groups. However, further research is necessary as to whether the operation of the rural village schooling system will lead to the community sustainable.