I've been around a while, started posting in 2008/9 ish I think, but I still feel like a total newbie and usually not confident enough to offer advice on anything I haven't been through or had to deal with myself.
Personally, this place has been a lifeline for me and the difference between my ds never getting past his breakdown and ending up at home, out of education and him now being well supported and finally happy and engaging with learning. I owe so many people on this board a huge debt of gratitude, so much so that chocolate, cake and 
doesn't seem like enough.
I go through phases of lurking, because I tend to deal with stress by retreating to my cave. Also, my brain having its own special brand of wonkiness these days, I have days where I struggle to string a coherent sentence together and I worry about how I might come across.
Devient, I have sometimes read your threads and been stuck for anything useful to say and at the same time worried that just posting sympathy will sound trite and not convey how truly sorry I am for how badly you and your ds have been let down and how hard each and every day is for you. I often find myself wishing I knew more and so that I could offer some advice or some possible route to support that perhaps has been overlooked, but I know that isn't likely to be the case, especially as I live in a very small world myself.
As for the special school vs mainstream thing. I would love it if there was a special school locally that would be a good fit for ds, as I know that in truth MS will never be able to meet all of his needs, teach him all the thing he will need to know and help him to practise and develop all the skills he will need to carry him through life. The truth of the matter is that we have been told that unless our dcs have one of three very specific issues, there simply is no special school provision on offer and that includes units attached to MS schools.
Anyhoo. I am most probably talking a load of c**p here, having spent the last three days battling ds1's proposed statement and staying up until 2 in the morning to get it sorted by the deadline. So feel free to ignore my ramblings and I'll leave you all with my share of the cake (as I've already ruined my diet by going to Druckers for a mahoosive piece of chocolate cake this afternoon 
).