After fixing several syntax errors in your code, I get -special to work by adding a blank line after each =head1 line: 
use warnings;
use strict;
use Pod::Usage;
use Getopt::Long;

GetOptions("help");

=head1 SYNOPSIS

         here's the main usage stuff

=head1 SPECIAL

        special usage stuff here...

=cut

# This prints SYNOPSIS above just fine as expected:
#pod2usage(-verbose => 0) if ($opt_help);  

# This only prints the '-message' and nothing else:
pod2usage({-verbose => 99,
           -sections => [qw(SPECIAL)],
           -message => "Here's special stuff...\n",
          });

__END__

Here's special stuff...

Special:
            special usage stuff here...

[download]

You should use podchecker on your code: 

*** WARNING: empty section in previous paragraph at line ... in file .
+..

[download]

In reply to Re: pod::usage "-sections" not working by toolic
in thread pod::usage "-sections" not working by johnguillory

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