The easiest way would be to use IPC::Open2. This returns the pid of the process. Once you have the pid, you can use waitpid to retrieve the status. It is returned in perlvar:$?. You need to shift this >> 8 in order to extract the status value.

P:\test>type test.pl
#! perl -slw
print 'Hello world';
exit 12;

P:\test>perl -de1

Loading DB routines from perl5db.pl version 1.19
Editor support available.

Enter h or `h h' for help, or `perldoc perldebug' for more help.

main::(-e:1):   1
  DB<1> use IPC::Open2

  DB<2> $pid = open2( IN, OUT, 'perl58.exe test.pl') or warn $!;

  DB<3> print <IN>;
Hello world

  DB<4> waitpid $pid, 0

  DB<5> print $? >> 8;

  DB<6> 12
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