President Bush this week signed off on a five-year renewal of a federal preschool program for poor families — a move lauded by local education officials who say it has been a long time coming.

The reauthorization of the 42-year-old Head Start program, stalled for the past several years, outlines plans to expand services to more families, strengthen oversight and improve qualifications of preschool teachers.

"It's wonderful. The changes are going to help give us a vision of the future," said Alicia Ramirez, associate executive director of Child Development Resources of Ventura County Inc., which administers local Head Start programs. "It was a long time coming. It was a relief."

Head Start is a federal program administered by more than 1,600 locally based public or private organizations, including Child Development Resources.

Ventura County gets money to serve 1,066 3- and 4-year-olds in preschool programs, as well as 160 pregnant mothers, infants and toddlers in the Early Head Start program.

The legislation signed by Bush allocates $7.35 billion for Head Start in fiscal year 2008. It also raises the income eligibility ceiling — from the current 100 percent of the poverty level for a family of four, or about $20,650 a year, to 130 percent, or $26,845 — while giving priority to the neediest children.

Ramirez said it will allow Head Start to reach more families struggling in high-cost Ventura County.

In some communities, including Port Hueneme and Oxnard, the demand for Head Start outpaces supply, creating long waiting lists. Elsewhere, Ramirez said, there's room to expand, such as Ojai, and the new eligibility ceiling could allow that to happen.

Despite the positives in the reauthorization, local officials said they were still waiting to see whether Head Start would get more funding to retain teachers with bachelor's degrees.

Legislators have set a 2013 deadline for half of all Head Start classroom teachers to have a least a bachelor's degree in early childhood education.

That's a step in the right direction, said Charles Weis, Ventura County's superintendent of schools. The legislation added "a little higher standard for the quality of programs" nationwide, including the education requirements, he said.

"The achievement gap that we see in elementary schools actually exists before kids come to kindergarten," Weis said, but a quality preschool program can change that.

Administered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Head Start provides early education services to low-income children from birth to the time they enter kindergarten. Its previous authorization expired in 2003.

Congress has approved money to keep the program going but had been unable to make substantial changes.

Last month, however, Congress approved The Improving Head Start Act of 2007, sending it to the president for his signature.

The National Reporting System, an accountability system, was dropped in the reauthorization, a move Bush criticized. Ramirez said many Head Start advocates didn't think the system was a valid test. She also applauded lawmakers for protecting the authority of local Head Start policy councils, a decision-making body in which more than half the members are parents.

"Parents are pretty much the cornerstone of Head Start," she said. "We really fought hard to make sure that their authority remained."