The article is devoted to the topic of additional diocesan educational institutions in the system of spiritual educational institutions of the Russian Empire. The crisis of spiritual education, which appeared at the turn of the XIX–XX centuries, intensified by the revolutionary events of 1905-1907, caused a heated debate in the public and church environment about the upcoming reform. The paper examines the causes and patterns of the emergence of new schools and courses at the local level, which preceded the legislative formalization of innovations, their integration into the existing state system of spiritual education. A special place in the article is given to trends in women's spiritual education: the creation of local theological schools alternative to diocesan women's schools, which preceded the reorganization of educational institutions for girls under the management of the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church. The article attempts to study the emergence of local diocesan educational institutions not only as separate events in the life of the dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church. The article attempts to study the emergence of local di-ocesan educational institutions not only as separate events in the life of the dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church. A generalized view of new educational institutions in the context of social and social phenomena makes it possible to see the relationship of additional schools with the transformations of the theological school after 1917.