Forgot to mention that Carp is enabled. If it matters STDOUT and STDERR are redirected to the output file using IO::Handle. Similar to CGI Script backgrounding, I fork a child and a parent and have the parent redirect to the child's page where the child's STDOUT/STDERR are redirected to.

I didn't think any of this should matter so I didn't include this in the question as this logic works BEAUTIFULLY in dashboard.pl itself. (Again, see CGI Script backgrounding for an explanation if you are curious about what dashboard.pl does).